Roadway conduit systems and methods

ABSTRACT

A roadway conduit system includes a roadway conduit section that includes a floor portion with roadway surface configured to receive traveling vehicles, a ceiling portion, and at least one sidewall portion coupled to the floor portion and the ceiling portion such that the floor, ceiling, and at least one sidewall portions define a roadway conduit volume through which the traveling vehicles traverse the roadway conduit section. The roadway conduit section includes at least two fixedly connected preformed segments. The roadway conduit system also includes a roadway conduit ingress coupled to a first location of the roadway conduit section; a roadway conduit egress coupled to a second location of the roadway conduit section; and at least one air mover configured to circulate an airflow in the roadway conduit volume in a direction of at least one of the traveling vehicles.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/043,896, filed onJul. 24, 2018, and entitled “Roadway Conduit Systems and Methods,” whichin turn is a continuation of, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/970,700, filed on May 3, 2018,and entitled “Roadway Conduit Systems and Methods,” now U.S. Pat. No.10,145,241, which in turn claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/631,253, filed on Feb. 15,2018, and entitled “Roadway Conduit Systems and Methods.” The entirecontents of each previous application are incorporated by referenceherein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to roadway conduit systems.

BACKGROUND

Freeways and road transportation across land is a ubiquitous method oftravel around the world today. Cars, trucks, semi-truck trailers andother vehicle types travel roadways from one location to another,carrying passengers, goods and freight. Likewise, rail way vehiclesperform a similar function using steel wheels and steel rails to rollalong thereby reducing the rolling drag energy losses. All of thesevehicle transportation methods face the same aerodynamic drag energylosses that scale non-linearly with velocity.

SUMMARY

In an example implementation, a roadway conduit system includes at leastone roadway conduit section that includes a floor portion that includesa roadway surface configured to receive one or more traveling vehicles,a ceiling portion, and at least one sidewall portion coupled to thefloor portion and the ceiling portion such that the floor, ceiling, andat least one sidewall portions define a roadway conduit volume throughwhich the one or more traveling vehicles traverse the at least oneroadway conduit section. The at least one roadway conduit sectionincludes at least two fixedly connected preformed segments. The roadwayconduit system also includes at least one roadway conduit ingresscoupled to a first location of the at least one roadway conduit section;at least one roadway conduit egress coupled to a second location of theat least one roadway conduit section; and at least one air moverconfigured to circulate an airflow in the roadway conduit volume in adirection of at least one of the traveling vehicles.

In an aspect combinable with the example implementation, the roadwayconduit section extends for at least one mile in length.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, abottom surface of the floor portion of the at least one roadway conduitsection is configured to be supported by a terranean surface.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theroadway conduit section is configured to operate such that a distancebetween the roadway conduit interior volume and atmospheric outside airis less than nine meters for a distance of at least one mile.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theat least one roadway conduit ingress includes at least one internalcombustion engine (ICE) vehicle barrier.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theat least one air mover is controllable to adjust the velocity of thecirculated airflow based on at least one of a velocity of the one ormore traveling vehicles or a location of the one or more travelingvehicles.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theat least one air mover is controllable to adjust the pressure of thecirculated airflow within the roadway conduit volume.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theat least two fixedly connected preformed segments include at least twoprecast concrete segments.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theat least two precast concrete segments are fixedly connected using posttensioning so as to fixedly compress adjacent segments into one another.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, atleast one of the precast concrete segments includes at least one surfacethat is reinforced using pre-stressed tendons cast into the segment.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes at least one compressible liquid barrier positioned between thetwo adjacent segments.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, thepost tensioning includes a plurality of post-tensioned tendons, and atleast two of the post-tensioned tendons overlap within a particular oneof the adjacent segments to form a unitary structure of the at least twoprecast and post tensioned concrete segments.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, atleast a portion of the at least one roadway conduit section includes asound dampening material.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, sounddeadening material includes a rubberized asphalt sound deadeningmaterial overlaid on the roadway surface.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theroadway surface includes at least a portion of a rail configured toreceive a railway vehicle.

In another example implementation, a method for managing travelingvehicles includes receiving one or more traveling vehicles into at leastone roadway conduit ingress coupled to a first location of at least oneroadway conduit section; receiving the one or more traveling vehiclesfrom the at least one roadway conduit ingress into a roadway conduitvolume of the roadway conduit section; receiving the one or moretraveling vehicles from the roadway conduit section into at least oneroadway conduit egress coupled to a second location of the roadwayconduit section; and circulating an airflow in the roadway conduitvolume with at least one air mover in a direction of at least one of thetraveling vehicles and at or near a velocity or a location of the one ormore traveling vehicles. The roadway conduit section includes a floorportion that includes a roadway surface configured to support the one ormore traveling vehicles, a ceiling portion, and at least one sidewallportion coupled to the floor portion and the ceiling portion such thatthe floor, ceiling, and at least one sidewall portions define theroadway conduit volume through which the traveling vehicles traverse theat least one roadway conduit section, the at least one roadway conduitsection including at least two fixedly connected preformed segments.

In an aspect combinable with the example implementation, the roadwayconduit section extends for at least one mile in length.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes receiving the one or more traveling vehicles onto the roadwaysurface of the floor portion that is in contact with a terranean surfacefor a distance of at least one mile.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes receiving the one or more traveling vehicles into the roadwayconduit volume that is a distance from atmospheric outside air that isless than nine meters for a distance of at least one mile.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes regulating receipt of the one or more traveling vehicles intothe at least one roadway conduit ingress with at least one internalcombustion engine (ICE) vehicle barrier.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes controlling the at least one air mover to adjust the velocityof the circulated airflow based on at least one of the velocity of theone or more traveling vehicles or a location of the one or moretraveling vehicles.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes controlling the at least one air mover to adjust the pressureof the circulated airflow within the roadway conduit volume.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theat least two fixedly connected preformed segments include at least twoprecast concrete segments.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects,receiving the one or more traveling vehicles from the at least oneroadway conduit ingress into the roadway conduit volume of the roadwayconduit section includes receiving a first traveling vehicle into afirst travel volume of the roadway conduit volume that is oriented tofacilitate travel of the first traveling vehicle in a first direction;and receiving a second traveling vehicle into a second travel volume ofthe roadway conduit volume that is oriented to facilitate travel of thesecond traveling vehicle in a second direction opposite the firstdirection.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects,circulating the airflow in the roadway conduit volume with at least oneair mover in the direction of at least one of the traveling vehicles andat or near the velocity or the location of the one or more travelingvehicles includes circulating a first airflow with a first air mover inthe first travel volume in the first direction and at or near a velocityor a location of the first traveling vehicle; and circulating a secondairflow with a second air mover in the second travel volume in thesecond direction and at or near a velocity or a location of the secondtraveling vehicle.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes receiving a railway vehicle onto at least one rail coupled tothe roadway surface.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes receiving electrical power, at the at least one air mover, froman electrical source that includes a renewable energy source, the atleast one air mover including an electrical load.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theelectrical load and electrical source are configured as an islandelectrical circuit.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes operating the electrical load using energy from the renewableenergy source or from one or more electrical energy storage devices.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects, theisland electrical circuit includes the one or more electrical energystorage devices.

Another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects furtherincludes providing the electrical power from the electrical energystorage devices to the electrical load.

In another aspect combinable with any one of the previous aspects,providing the electrical power from the electrical energy storage to theelectrical load includes providing the electrical power from theelectrical energy storage to the electrical load for at least 4 hours.

The details of one or more implementations of the subject matterdescribed in this disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawingsand the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages ofthe subject matter will become apparent from the description, thedrawings, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1B show a view of a single individual section of a precastconcrete conduit segment.

FIG. 2 shows a short roadway conduit including 4 individual precastconcrete conduit segmental sections and a vehicle therein.

FIG. 3 shows the same short roadway conduit partially buried

FIG. 4 shows the same short roadway conduit fully buried but close tothe surface.

FIG. 5 shows two independent roadway conduits positioned adjacent to oneanother and including bi directional traffic, one direction in eachroadway conduit, and also that the roadway conduit can be fully buriedjust beneath the surface to enable a surface roadway to be constructedon top of the conduit roadway.

FIG. 6 shows the danger of one vehicle going airborne and crashing overa barrier into oppositely moving traffic, effectively doubling thecollision velocity and quadrupling the collision energy.

FIG. 7 shows a few potential long distance routes, cross country, thatthe roadway conduit may follow.

FIGS. 8A-8B show an example method for constructing an eight-way airmover including air flow paths.

FIG. 9 shows one method for constructing a roadway conduit using precastconcrete slabs that are joined together.

FIG. 10 shows one conduit lane of a typical roadway conduit systemalongside a typical surface freeway bi directional pairs of lanes andincluding a roadway conduit system ingress roadway that passes beneaththe existing surface freeway, comes up and connects traffic into theroadway conduit system and including various forms of internalcombustion engine (ICE) barriers.

FIG. 11 shows an islanded roadway conduit system including conduitsystem components, renewable energy farm, system energy storage and anoptional relay connection to utility energy.

FIGS. 12 and 12A-12B show example techniques to reduce acoustic noisewithin the conduit system including acoustic reflective surfaces andacoustic damping materials.

FIG. 13 shows a schematic layout for a conduit system operationincluding renewable energy farm and one method for a vehicle using theconduit way system to replenish it's on board energy stores while alsoproviding amenities for vehicle occupant(s) (if any).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure relates generally to structures and methods toreduce the energy per mile to transport goods and people. The reductionin energy cost can alternately be used to increase the speed oftransportation. The advantage of the present disclosure stems from thefact that as a vehicle on a surface roadway increases velocity, theaerodynamic drag increases in a nonlinear fashion. For a class 8semi-truck at typical freeway speeds, approximately two thirds of theenergy to propel the truck is spent to overcome aerodynamic drag and onethird is spent to overcome rolling friction and other drag losses.Conduit ways can entirely eliminate the two thirds, aerodynamic, energycost.

The present disclosure further relates, generally, to conduit ways fortransportation that conserve kinetic energy imparted to air within theway for the benefit of vehicles travelling through the conduit way(s).While in certain locations the conduit way may be constructed belowground and then be considered a tunnel, such construction choice is moreexpensive and therefore typically the exception and not the norm.Typically, conduit ways are constructed at ground level using the earthas support and with the top of the conduit way structure close to andpreferably in connection with the planetary atmosphere for easycommunication of atmospheric air into and out of the conduit way.

The present disclosure discloses a new and low cost method forconstructing conduit ways, the lower cost enabling the technology to becommercially deployed along routes heretofore economically impossible.Conduit ways in their various forms have in common that the air withinthe conduit and within energetically significant fluid dynamiccommunication with vehicles within the conduit, when vehicles are usingthe conduit, is moving in the same sense as do vehicles within theconduit. This reduces the headwind experienced by the vehicles and withthat, the energy demand placed upon the vehicles. This air flowcondition is the norm, though as will be disclosed there are emergencyand other conditions when this typical rule is not desirable (runawaytrucks), so that this condition is not a requisite of a conduit way.

In some embodiments, vehicles within the conduit impart kinetic energyto the air in the conduit, the conduit conserving that kinetic energylonger than would a surface roadway, for the benefit of other vehicleswithin the conduit way, and in other embodiments optional air movers areadded to the conduit ways to impart additional kinetic energy to airwithin the conduit. In both cases the air velocity of the headwindexperienced by a vehicle within the conduit way is reduced and with airmovers if desired, can then be caused to be 0 mph, or even negative.This eliminates the aerodynamic drag and therefore the energy demandplaced upon the vehicle. The vehicle range is thereby significantlyincreased, a benefit particularly useful for Electric Vehicles and otherzero emission vehicles.

The vehicles using the conduit ways can be road vehicles such as cars,trucks, semi-trucks with trailers and the like, or they can be railvehicles with steel wheels riding along steel tracks. Preferentially,the vehicles used to propel freight, goods and people are zero emissionvehicles such as EVs, so that the conduit way does not need to expel airand with it, imparted kinetic energy, in order to maintain non-toxicbreathable air within the conduit.

Counter to modern Tunnels, where vehicular energy is parasitically usedto reduce the energy required of blowers to maintain breathable airwithin the tunnel, conduit ways provide the opposite benefit to vehiclestherein. Within conduit ways, when provided with Air Movers, the purposeof the air movers is to increase the interior air velocity and therebydecrease the vehicular headwind and in turn, vehicular energyconsumption per mile. This increases vehicular range per on board energystore, which for an EV is the kWh capacity of the battery, or onboardcompressed gas store, or other onboard zero emission energy store. Thisvehicular benefit typically comes at an increased operational cost tothe conduit way system.

Counter to modern underground tunnel construction which typically costs$1B per mile, or proposed tunnel designs hoped to cost as low or lowerthan $100 M per mile, figures too large for reasonable experimentation,the present disclosure solves the problem of construction cost byteaching how to build a conduit way for under $10 M per mile and in somecases as low as $2 M per mile. The dramatic construction cost reductionenables the present conduits to be deployed along travel corridorsheretofore not possible.

The structural innovations disclosed here make possible for the firsttime, construction of Useful long distance tunnels that can reasonablybe constructed to unlimited length including 3,000 mile long crosscountry roadway conduit ways and railway conduit ways for thetransportation of goods and people from a first to a second location.This Usefulness results from the reduced amortized cost of constructioncombined with the reduced operational cost for energy to power thesystems. These combined costs are lower than the cost of fuel and driverlabor to transport freight and people along typical surface roadwayssuch as the US Interstate Freeway system.

Because the combined cost of (amortized) construction plus the conduitway operational costs can be lower than the cost of operating a vehicleon a surface roadway, the present disclosure teaches a method capable oflowering the total cost of transportation by shifting vehicles fromrolling along surface road ways and rail ways, to rolling throughconduit ways (road and/or rail). This reduction in total vehicularoperating costs can be partially charged as a toll for using the conduitways and thereby enable for the first time, both the conduit wayoperator and the vehicle operator to benefit via revenue from tolls andfrom transit cost savings, respectively, as a result of the creation ofa new conduit way system.

Implementations according to the present disclosure may include a systemof one or more road way conduits disposed to provide lower energyconsumption corridors to convey people and/or goods from a first to asecond location. The road way conduit(s) conserve kinetic energycommunicated to the air within the conduits. Two communication methodsare the so called piston effect where moving vehicles within a conduitcommunicate kinetic energy to the air within the conduit and a secondmethod is where an air mover coupled to air within and optionally alsoto air outside of the conduit, such that the action of the system actsto increase the velocity and/or modify the pressure of the air withinthe conduit in such manner as to reduce the power required to propel avehicle through the conduit at a fixed velocity, and/or also to increasethe comfort of passengers via a reduction of internal pressureexcursions.

By reducing the power required of a vehicle to travel at a fixedvelocity, the road way conduit affords the vehicle the benefit ofreduced energy consumption per mile travelled.

A vehicle within the conduit way can travel at the same velocity as asurface roadway and enjoy a reduced energy demand per mile travelled. Aswell, a vehicle can travel at a significantly increased velocityrelative to the ground, and yet by arranging for the air to be movingwith the vehicle, the energy demand on the vehicle can be caused to bemuch lower than it would have been on a surface roadway at a slowervelocity. A vehicle could for example, travel within the roadway conduitat 120 mph with a 0 mph headwind and would expend less energy per milethan the same vehicle travelling at about 40 mph on a surface roadwaywith a 40 mph headwind.

As energy costs money, changing the energy required to transport goodsand/or people from a first to a second location provides an economicadvantage to the vehicles using the conduit system. A portion of thateconomic advantage could be paid as toll so that both the vehicleoperator and the roadway conduit operator profit. This creates a mutualbenefit and a reason for creation of the roadway conduit systems.

Further, the road way conduit system proposed here additionally enablessafe deployment of autonomous vehicle control. This feature eliminatesthe cost and/or burden of providing every vehicle with a human driver.Eliminating the task of piloting a vehicle provides an additionaleconomic and/or functional value to the vehicle operator.

Combined, the savings in energy cost plus the savings in vehiclepiloting cost (and/or effort) create an incentive for vehicle operatorsto utilize the road way conduit system and to pay a toll so long as thetoll cost can be made smaller than the combined savings value.

The benefit to trucking companies, for example, is a combination ofreducing transportation energy costs to below those incurred by shippingfreight by rail, and as well, the cost of piloting trucks can beeliminated. These two savings are significant and a portion of thesesavings can be directed to a toll that covers the amortized cost of anappropriately designed and operated road way conduit system.

The benefit to private vehicle travel is a combination of the energysavings as before, and the ability to activate autonomous vehiclepiloting so that rather than focusing on driving a vehicle, sometimesfor hours on a long journey, the “driver” can engage autopilotfunctionality and then perform other tasks such as reading, working, orwatching a movie on a long journey. The “driver” becomes a passenger ina similar way that a passenger on an airplane or in the rear seat of acar today, is able to direct their attention to activities other thanpiloting the vehicle. While expected to be realized in the future onsurface roadways, conduit ways enable safe use of autonomous pilotingtoday.

These benefits have value and so long as the conduit system can be builtat a low enough cost so that the toll necessary to cover all costs isbelow the value of these advantages, then the private vehicle willperceive value in using the system in spite of the toll charges to coverroadway conduit system operational and amortized construction costs.

The benefit to companies in the Fulfillment industry (such as Amazon) isthat goods can, with the conduit system, be moved from a warehouse toanother location at a lower cost than is possible today. This can beused to either increase profit margins or reduce consumer charges.

In addition to road vehicles the same conduit systems can be applied torail transportation. Today, battery powered train cars are rare. Thereare, however, electric trains. Electric trains can have distributedmotors on all of the cars and in this sense, a train is very similar toa large number of individual semi-trucks all connected (physically andaerodynamically) together. The two advantages trains have is that theyuse steel wheels, and therefore they benefit from having a much lowerrolling friction drag force to overcome, and, their cars are closelyspaced and often aerodynamically coupled to significantly reduceaerodynamic drag energy losses. They still, however, must overcomeaerodynamic drag, and as the velocity of the train increases, theaerodynamic losses increase non linearly.

By combining the electric train concept with the roadway conduit conceptand the semi-truck battery powered concept, a new class oftransportation can be realized. Within the conduit way the aerodynamicdrag can intentionally be partially or entirely zeroed out (albeit atthe cost of powering air through the conduit way, which typicallyrequires much less energy than powering a vehicle through stationary airon a surface roadway).

Doing this with a rail vehicle, however, also eliminates the wheelfriction losses. The electric semi-truck proposed by Tesla supposedlycan transport freight at a lower cost than a typical Diesel train. Asimple blunt container with wheels and a motor and zero aerodynamicfeatures, converted to a rail vehicle with steel wheels a battery andmotors, and then inserted into a proposed railway conduit system asopposed to a roadway conduit system, would have a cost per mile per tonof freight that would be even lower than the Tesla Semi-truck due toboth reduced wheel drag force and also reduced aerodynamic drag. TheTesla Semi-truck for example cuts aerodynamic drag in half. Incomparison a blunt vehicle without aerodynamic features, within aconduit way can cut aerodynamic drag to zero. This per mile per ton offreight cost reduction will then result in reduced freighttransportation cost and in the end, reduced cost of goods sold tocustomers.

Energetically, the cost of moving freight, per ton per mile, using abattery powered and/or electric train car within a conduit way is lowerthan the cost of moving freight per ton per mile using ocean goingcontainerized freight systems. Today, ocean going freight transportationis the lowest cost method for moving freight. This new system isestimated to have an even lower cost per ton per mile making it thelowest cost method for moving freight bar none.

Rather than shipping from New York to the West Coast by ocean freightersbeing the lowest cost freight transport method, the new railway conduitsystem would become the lowest cost method and in this way, delivery offreight throughout the middle regions of the US and other countries cancost less than shipping across oceans using highly polluting bunkerfuel.

This reduces the pollution emitted by typical freight transportationmethods and at the same time reduces the cost for moving freight. Railconduit ways can provide the lowest cost method for moving freight andpassengers from a first to a second location, beating all othertransportation forms.

In some aspects, a roadway conduit system (or railway conduit system)may be distinct from a tunnel in that, conventionally, a tunnel isprovided for a vehicle to traverse through or under a barrier such as amountain, a river or other water way, a crowded city and so on. In someaspects, roadway conduit system comprises a vehicle way that is built ina location where a normal surface roadway would normally be constructedas there are no obstacles to get past, under, or through. Instead, thepurpose of the conduit way may be completely different with the goal ofreducing vehicular energy cost and increasing vehicular range, ascompared to getting past some obstacle. Also, in some aspects, such aconduit system may achieve the goal of reducing the cost of constructionof vehicle ways (compared to vehicle tunnels) and may reduce theoperating cost of same so that, for the first time, it becomeseconomically feasible/profitable to build such a conduit system.

Within a conduit way, it can be arranged that the air within the conduitis moving in the same sense and the same velocity as the vehicles withinthe way. Exactly what the relative velocity chosen will be is determinedbased on a variety of parameters including costs for moving the vehiclesand costs for moving the air. But it can easily be arranged that the airin a conduit way is moving at the same velocity as a semi-truck, e.g.,at 70 mph.

In this case, the truck and air are moving at the same speed. Thereforethe headwind experienced by the truck is 0 mph and there is noaerodynamic drag imposed upon the truck. This saves the truck about 67percent of the energy cost it would have been expending if it were on anopen roadway. At the same time, the roadway conduit will experience acost associated with moving the air at that velocity.

The difference is that from an energy to move air perspective, theinterior bore of the tunnel is dramatically smoother, or “cleaner” tothe air flow than is the truck moving through stationary air on asurface roadway. The tunnel is also, however, very long compared to thetruck. If a single truck were within a 400 mile tunnel and the air downthe entire length of the tunnel were all moving so that the truck (atits location along the 400 mile conduit) could enjoy zero headwind, thecost would be very much larger than the cost to just move the truck downa surface freeway.

But, if there are a large enough number of vehicles within the conduitway, then the cost of moving the air incurred by the conduit way can beshared by all of the vehicles in the conduit way. There is therefore abreak even density of vehicles within a conduit way where the cost ofoperating the conduit way is equal to the cost of moving the vehiclesalong a surface roadway.

By analyzing real traffic data from Departments of Transportation, onecan determine candidate routes where installation of a conduit way wouldbe cost effective based on vehicle count. However, the DOT data isessentially all ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles and forreasons to be described (toxic exhaust emissions), ICE vehicles cannotbe allowed to operate within the tunnels. Vehicles may be restricted toEVs and/or ICE vehicles may be required to board an EV sled to carry theICE vehicle through the conduit way.

Then, by further analyzing the EV adoption curve, the select few ofthose candidates where EV adoption is potentially large enough tosupport the necessary density of vehicles to reach a usage level greaterthan break even can be selected. As the EV adoption proceeds over thecoming decade, additional routes will reach a user level whereprofitable installation of conduit ways will be possible.

There are two basic costs that need to be satisfied to yield aprofitable corridor. The first is that the cost of the construction mustbe paid via an amortized method over a number of years, for example 30.Second, the cost of powering the conduit systems such as air movers,lights and so on must be added to the amortized construction cost. Thesum must be exceeded by toll revenue in order that the conduit way be infact, useful.

Keeping this in mind it is of paramount importance that a new method forconstructing the ways be found. Typical vehicular tunnels can cost $1billion per mile. The Boring Company has aspirations to reduce this forsmaller tunnels, to $100 million per mile. Both of those tunnel systemsmust first bore a hole through earth and then install a tunnel lining.All the while construction must be carried out below ground. This is aprohibitively expensive process and results in extremely high amortizedcost of construction incompatible with constructing long distanceconduit ways.

The present method is based on the fact that to enable the conservationof energy for the air motion within the conduit way, the conduit wayneed not in fact be constructed below ground. Rather, it is far lessexpensive to simply set cast in place and/or precast concrete conduitsegments on top of the earth, join them together so that they createeffectively a “tunnel” which for this application will be called a“conduit way” to distinguish it from real tunnels which are below groundand typically have a different purpose of penetrating through anobstacle.

By using a precast method of construction, all of the components tobuild a long conduit way can be entirely constructed off site. Then, allof the components can be brought to the location of the way andinstalled in very rapid time. A single crew can build as much as a mileper day with a cost factor as low as $2 million per mile beingreasonable. This, in the end, results in a far lower amortized costbasis and enables routes that would not be possible using existingtunnel construction methods.

Normally, aerodynamics of road vehicles is used to reduce the cost ofmoving vehicles down a roadway. To shift the vehicles into a conduit wayrequires that one analyze air flow in a conduit rather than air flowaround a vehicle. This is a different field of study that uses differentequations to consider design parameters.

However, if one makes a simplistic comparison of a tunnel interior to atrain exterior using the concepts of topology, it can be understood thatboth surfaces are similar. They are long, they are smooth, and theyprovide little resistance to air moving along the surface. The tunnel,however, is far longer than any train and it can be much smoother aswell. Therefore, per unit length, the tunnel has the lower air friction.And finally, the tunnel does not have a front and a rear to enable formpressure drag to manifest as is the case for the train. For a vehicle inair, pressure drag is greater than skin friction drag until the vehiclebecomes very long. This is why trains have an advantage in lower airdrag energy demand, but they still have a front and a rear, so stillsuffer from pressure drag in addition to skin friction drag.

The air within a tunnel doesn't care where the tunnel is located. Itcould be below ground or above ground or on the ground or through amountain or under a river or under a sea. But from a constructionperspective, there is a big difference in cost and building a conduitway on or at the surface of the planet enables use of surface excavatorsand other bulldozers and equipment that cost far less than tunnel boringmachines or blasting to build an underground tunnel.

To make the conduit ways work, it is optionally desired to add a varietyof components to the conduit ways. These include ingress and egressways, electric vehicle charging locations connected to the conduit ways,air movers to increase the KE within the air inside the conduit ways tofurther reduce the energy demand upon the vehicles, solar and windfarms, preferably combined with battery power storage to enable 24/7conduit way operation, and other systems such as an ICE vehicle barrierto prevent exhaust emitting vehicles from entering the conduit way.

It is also desirable to optionally include a centralized conduit waycontrol system that monitors all activity within the conduit way. Incase of emergency the system can communicate directives to vehicles thatare perhaps still very far away from arriving at the location of theemergency, and still unaware that an emergency condition exists ahead.The control system can direct vehicles throughout the conduit way totake action to minimize the bother of the emergency situation as well asto help remediate the emergency by making way for emergency vehicles.Individual vehicles can be directed to take specific action(s) via bidirectional communication between the central control system and thevehicles, preferentially using a conduit interior Wi-Fi communicationssystem.

The system will also communicate with each vehicle as it enters theconduit way to determine its entry location and exit location, computethe traffic within the conduit to verify that traffic flow can bemaintained with the additional vehicle, assign entry and exit times andso on. In the case where the conduit way control system is movingvehicles through the way in platoons, one choice of solution is where avehicle wanting to enter will be directed to enter into the conduitahead of a platoon of vehicles and to travel at a velocity slower thanthe platoon. Then, when the platoon catches up to the new vehicle, itwill be directed to speed up to the platoon cruising velocity and assumea lead position. It will maintain that lead position until another newvehicle enters the conduit way system and takes over that lead position.

Alternately the vehicle could be instructed to enter the conduit wayjust after a platoon had passed and be directed to catch up to the rearof the platoon.

Platooning of vehicles down a long conduit enables the conduit system toonly drive air movers when a platoon is approaching, passing, orrecently passed an air mover position. There is no point in driving airthrough the air mover if no vehicles are nearby to energetically benefitfrom the KE imparted to the air flow within the conduit way.

Another important aspect of the present disclosure is to couple arenewable energy form to the vehicle transportation energy cost. Thisshifts the energy cost requirement from petroleum transportation fuels(gasoline/Diesel) to renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro, wave,geothermal, etc.). While a conduit way could be operated using utilitypower as its energy source, today it typically costs less to generatethe energy from solar or wind power than it would cost to purchaseenergy from a utility. The conduit ways, in order to be profitable, havea large enough energy load to justify construction of a large number ofsolar power and wind power renewable energy farms. This enables directreal time communication of energy from a renewable energy source, tomoving vehicles, thereby entirely eliminating fossil fuel combustion toeffect the vehicular translation.

To realize this connection it is advantageous to construct ingress andegress locations that connect to the renewable energy farms, preferablyfitted with battery or other electrical energy storage equipment. Thisenables use of the ingress and egress conduits to bring high powercables from the renewable energy farm into the long conduit way.

These entrance exits to the renewable energy farm(s) also enablevehicles to exit and enter at the same locations. As renewable energyfarms typically occupy a large land area, it is easy to additionallyinstall EV chargers.

In this way these chargers combined with the conduit ways themselves,can provide 100% of the energy needed to transport people and goodsacross the country for unlimited distances.

As charging can take a while with current EV technologies, it will alsobe advantageous to include restrooms, restaurants, hotels and otheramenities at the stop locations. Rather than using existing on ramps andoff ramps of typically adjacent freeways, the conduit ways at anentrance/exit location can be below ground so that the ingress andegress conduits can cross beneath the surface roadway to access a largeenough property upon which to build the renewable energy farm alongsidethe existing surface roadway. This method enables the farm to beconstructed far away from existing exits where commerce has alreadybuilt up and the land is prohibitively expensive for the construction ofa renewable energy farm that requires many (potentially 100 or more) ofacres of land.

One important system of the present disclosure is the air mover.Vehicles within a conduit way will naturally cause the air within tomove. This enables all vehicles to benefit one another as the conduitway will conserve this imparted KE for the benefit of all vehicles therewithin. However, it is often the case that additional KE imparted to theair within the conduit way would be beneficial. Air movers can be usedto provide this advantage.

Because the conduit way is constructed, typically, with the top of theconduit exposed to the planetary atmosphere, it is therefore easy toinstall an 8 way air mover. this optional and preferable air moverdesign employs air movers that are able to move air in 2 oppositedirections. It is combined with air directors that are able to shift theair flow from the tunnel to the atmosphere on one side, and the airmover on the other side.

This provides two different inlet configurations, two different airmover directions, and two different outlet configurations for a total of2×2×2 combinations or 8 different configurations for the total systemair flow paths. This is useful for modifying the air motion within theconduit way and also for modifying the air pressure within the conduitway.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is that it enables safeautonomous operation of vehicles including cars and class 8 trucks.Within the conduit ways it is impossible for a vehicle to go airborne asit is never running into a high velocity headwind. There are also noobstacles to run into. The only way a vehicle might crash inside theconduit system would be if perhaps a tire burst and the vehicle went outof control. The worst it could do is to slam into the sidewalls andscrape to a gradual stop. It cannot crash into vehicles in adjacentlanes and certainly cannot crash into oncoming traffic to cause a headon collision as is depicted in FIG. 6.

Vehicles ahead of a crashing vehicle will simply continue on their way.Vehicles behind the crashing vehicle will autonomously detect thevelocity change and immediately react by slowing their vehicles. At thesame time they will communicate the emergency to the conduit way controlsystem and that system will communicate, immediately, to all vehiclesclose enough to be affected by the emergency that they need to takespecific actions such as slowing down, stopping, and/or exiting theconduit way temporarily so that emergency vehicles can access theaccident, take care of any injuries, and clean up the problem. Once theproblem is removed normal travel can resume.

It is also important to provide emergency exits in the event all of thesafety plans fail. If the tunnel were to fill with smoke and anyone weretrapped inside, it is important that a path for them to exit beprovided. Because the entire roadway conduit system is close to theatmosphere, emergency exit doors can be installed frequently along thelength of the conduit system. Preferably, emergency exit doors andpathways to outside atmospheric air are provided at intervals less than1,000 feet. Still more preferably, emergency exits are provided atintervals less than 300 feet. In the latter case the maximum distanceanyone would need to walk or run to exit a conduit way would be 50yards.

Throughout the modern world, there is a need to move people and goodsfrom one location to another. Transportation today is realized by air,sea, and land. For land transportation there exist railways androadways. Each of these enable people and goods to move from a first toa second location across the land.

There exist a great number of locations where an obstacle blockingconstruction of a roadway or railway exists. To get to the other side ofthe obstacle, one must either travel around the obstacle, over theobstacle, or in some manner, penetrate through or beneath the obstacle.A few examples of obstacles include mountains, rivers, seas, bays, andas well, densely populated cities with a high density of existingstructures. When it becomes impractical to remove structures in a city,the structures can become an obstacle to installing a new roadway orrailway.

In each case, it is not feasible to remove the obstacle, and, thedistance to travel around the obstacle is greater than a distance onecould travel if one were to build a tunnel through or under theobstacle. Often, a tunnel is built to enable vehicles to move through amountain or beneath a river or sea. A 15 minute ride through a tunnelthat gets to the other side of a mountain or river can often save 2hours of travel on alternate ways.

Today, the longest road tunnel in the world is the Laerdal tunnel inNorway. This tunnel penetrates through a mountain and is 15 miles long.It has bi directional lanes for road vehicles to use. The purpose of theLaerdal tunnel is to reduce the travel distance and time, to get fromone side of the mountain range to the other.

Today, the longest train tunnel in the world is the Gotthard Base Tunnelin Switzerland which is 35.5 miles long, and the Guangzhou Metro tunnelin China at 37.5 miles long. The longest tunnel of any kind today is theDelaware aqueduct for conveying water, at 85 miles length.

However, obstacles are the exception and not the rule. The vast majorityof all road transit around the world takes place on open roadways. Theseconsist of a roadway, typically composed of concrete and/or asphaltmaterials, disposed upon a flattened and compacted field dirt base. Fortrains, the norm is for rails to be mounted onto appropriately compactedearth and steel rails, but these too are simple routes on open to theatmosphere ways. The descriptions below will focus on roadways forvehicles such as cars and trucks, but this focus is not intended tolimit the scope of this application as railways and other vehicular wayscan also benefit from the present disclosure.

This choice of roadway comes with a set of physical criteria that definetravel in one location as being substantially similar to travel along asimilar roadway in a completely different location around the earth.That these functional similarities exist is so obvious that they aretaken for granted.

A few similarities for surface roadways around the world are that theyhave a flat material for rubber tires to roll upon. The material isoften concrete or asphalt concrete or other material to provide a flatsurface upon which road vehicles, cars and trucks, can roll. They areopen to the atmosphere. Being open to the atmosphere, vehiclestravelling upon these roadways are exposed to aerodynamic drag that is afunction of the velocity of travel of the vehicles.

The smooth surface enables high speed travel that was previouslyimpossible due to the speed limitations of horses. By providing smoothroadways over a century ago it became possible for vehicles to safelytravel at around 65 mph and faster in some locations.

A common issue to deal with is that as the velocity of travel increases,the outcome of accidents becomes worse, meaning, the death rateincreases and intensity of collisions increases as does damage tovehicles involved and the severity of injuries that result.

Above about 65 mph, vehicles (including airplanes) can under certaincircumstances become airborne. This is a serious problem for roadvehicles as if one car is crashing and becomes airborne, it can fly upinto the air, across lanes and into adjacent traffic. If the adjacenttraffic happens to be travelling in the opposite direction, the head oncollision is particularly dangerous and often yields fatalities.

Another ubiquitous aspect of roadway travel is aerodynamic energy loss.It is well known that by changing the shape of a vehicle it is possibleto reduce the aerodynamic losses. Recently, for example, Teslaintroduced a new Semi-Truck with a remarkable aerodynamic coefficient ofdrag of just C_(d)=0.36. This value is better than most sports cars andsignificantly lower than a typical semi-truck with a 0.65 or socoefficient of drag. Tesla went to extreme effort to create wings thatopen and collapse against the side of the trailer to eliminate the dragassociated with air moving around the tractor and hitting the bluntfront end of the trailer.

Their success shows two important things. It is very valuable to findways to eliminate aerodynamic drag upon road vehicles, and, the expertsin the field work to improve the shape of the vehicle moving through,the ambient air. As will be described later, the present disclosureinstead provides a means to eliminate the aerodynamic drag entirely,rendering these extreme efforts to reduce the Ca of the Tesla Semiuseless within the new conduit system proposed. The designs are,however, valuable for use of those semi-trucks on open roadways, whichof course comprise the vast majority of all existing roadways today.

A few ideas have been realized that could in principle provide adifferent path to reducing the drag imposed upon a vehicle. Thephenomena known as the piston effect is in essence the recognition thata vehicle moving through air within a tunnel, imposes a transfer of KEfrom the vehicle to the air within the tunnel and if the air in thetunnel is moving in the same sense as the vehicle, then the “headwind”experienced by the vehicle can be reduced. In this case, the aerodynamicdrag is reduced. But this reduction for one vehicle came from anincrease in energy demand placed upon another vehicle that got the airmoving in the first place. Overall, vehicles today deliver energy totunnel systems and tunnel systems use that energy to reduce their demandfor electrical energy to power blowers for the ventilation of ICEvehicle exhaust fumes.

For land speed record tests, it is always required that the vehicle makethe run in two opposite directions within a short period of time so asto eliminate the case where a strong tail wind enabled an artificiallyhigh top speed for the vehicle. By averaging the top speed in twoopposite directions, a good approximation for the zero wind top speedcan be obtained. The fact that a tail wind enables a higher top speed iswell known.

In some aspects, a tail wind enables travel at a fixed velocity at alower power level for a given vehicle. In some aspects, if air withinthe tunnel is caused to move in the same sense and speed as the vehiclesin the tunnel, the vehicular power requirement will be reduced. In fact,the portion of the vehicular power required to overcome aerodynamic dragwill be precisely 0 HP in the case where the vehicle speed and tunnelair speed are the same. The vehicle, in this case, will experience a 0velocity headwind and the only power draw will be to overcome wheelrolling resistance, bearing resistance and the like.

While true, the fact that creating a tail wind within a tunnel canreduce the aerodynamic power requirement for vehicles, does not teach,without undue experimentation, how to do so in a way that isenergetically profitable and therefore commercially viable. The reasonis that while creating the tail wind for vehicles in a tunnel issomething a few have realized could in principle provide a benefit tovehicles, this is insufficient for creating a viable new transit means.

A deeper analysis for the cost of providing that tail wind shows thatfor a one mile section of a tunnel with reasonable size for roadvehicles, it would require about 2 MW of air mover power to eliminateabout 30 kW of vehicle power. In other words, while it may be thatcertain people have realized that it would be possible to reduce theaerodynamic power requirement imposed upon a vehicle if a tail wind wascreated, a closer analysis shows that doing so would typically beextremely cost prohibitive.

From this it is clear why we do not have hundred mile or thousand milelong tunnels for the purpose of reducing the energy demand of vehicles.A 450 mile tunnel from Sacramento, Calif. to Los Angeles, Calif. wouldrequire of order 1 GW of power to enable a wind to remove just 30 kW ofpower demand if the tunnel had within it a single vehicle. Creating thisstructure would be economically absurd.

The cost to build a tunnel to experiment with this notion is also nontrivial. A typical tunnel may cost $1 Billion per mile to build. If thetunnel size is reduced as proposed by the Boring Company, this cost maybe reduced to $100 Million per mile. Assuming this case, a tunnel fromSacramento to Los Angeles would cost about: 2 (tunnels)*450 mileseach*$100 M/mile=$90 Billion

Then, one of ordinary skill in the art would need to construct around 2GW of power plants to supply a similar power of air movers just toexperiment with whether the idea might work. Someone of ordinary skillin the art would typically realize the outcome would not be fruitfulafter learning of the cost to build the tunnels, or the cost and powerto drive the air movers, or both.

Another feature of surface roadways is that of differential relativevelocity. In other words, the danger associated with moving at highspeed is of serious concern. If two adjacent lanes of traffic are movingin opposite directions, and at high speed, then the closing velocity foropposing vehicles is double their individual velocities, and the kineticenergy of their combined closing velocity is 4 fold increased (velocitysquared). Also, in the case of HOV lanes where entrance is restricted tovehicles with larger occupancy loads, the velocity of vehicles in an HOVlane can often be the full allowed speed of the roadway (for example, 65mph) while the adjacent lane that is not an HOV lane might be fullystopped.

The differential velocity for head on collisions between two adjacentlanes travelling in opposite directions is 2*65 mph=130 mph and foradjacent lanes such as HOV and normal, where one is stopped, is 1*65mph=65 mph. If for example, someone in a stopped lane cuts into an HOVlane, a 65 mph collision velocity could be created. If instead, onevehicle went airborne and jumped a barrier and crashed into opposingtraffic the impact velocity would be 130 mph.

A different roadway system that eliminated these kinds of accidents asbeing a possibility would be an advantage. Neither of these collisionscenarios is possible within a roadway conduit system.

Another feature of current roadways is that all vehicles must be“driven.” In other words, someone must control the motions of thevehicle and remain alert throughout the voyage. Of late, however, it hasbecome possible for computers to control a vehicle and relieve the humandriver of that burden. So far these computer controlled systems have notyet been approved to operate on open roadways except for certainexperimental purposes. While they should be safer and are purported tobe, safer, the fact is they have not been in operation for millions ofmiles to have “proven” they in fact are safer.

Therefore, it would be an advantage to create a roadway system whereautonomous piloted vehicles could be safely enabled and tested. If acrashing vehicle were confined within collision proof walls, there wouldbe less collateral damage caused if a single vehicle under autonomouscontrol were to lose control and crash. The creation of a safe roadwaywhere autonomous vehicles could operate during the testing phase isdesirable.

On existing roadways where the roadway is within a tunnel penetrating,for example, a mountain, and where the roadway in a single tube is onlyin a single direction, there is an effect known as the piston effect. Tothe degree that the piston effect manifests, it also reduces the powerdraw of nearby vehicles.

However, with all tunnels today, a greater problem exists. Today, theterm “vehicle” is essentially synonymous with “Internal CombustionEngine” (ICE) vehicles. The toxic gases emitted by ICE vehicles requiresthat the air within any tunnel be continuously eliminated and with it,any KE deposited by moving vehicles. The toxicity of the exhaust gasestakes priority and all existing tunnel roadways have provision toventilate the air within road tunnels.

The result of this is that as the number of vehicles within a tunnelincreases, so too does the concentration of exhaust gases. Withincreased exhaust gas concentration it is necessary to increase the useof air movers or blowers to speed the exhaust of the polluted air withinthe tunnel. The piston effect is therefore used in modern tunnels toreduce the power required to maintain clean air within the tunnels.Because vehicles interaction with the air causes the air to move, thetunnel operator is able to turn down the power delivered to blowers if atunnel is designed to take advantage of this phenomena.

When the traffic flow slows down or stops, the power delivered toblowers may be increased. When the traffic volume drops, the vehicularpiston effect wanes but so too does the air pollution. Typically, theblower power can be turned off as the vehicle density tends toward zero.

It would be an advantage to eliminate the exhaust gas from the tunnel byeliminating the vehicles that emit it. In this way, it would not benecessary to operate blowers for the purpose of cleaning the air withinthe tunnel. If the air did not need to be exhausted due to pollution, KEsupplied to the air within the tunnel could be conserved for the benefitof vehicles within the tunnel such that the energy consumed by thosevehicles could be reduced as they journey from one end to the other ofthe tunnel.

For existing tunnels, the problem of maintaining breathable air withinthe tunnels requires large ventilation systems to cleanse the air. As aresult, it is desirable to build a tunnel so that it gets past theobstacle in the path of a roadway in as short a distance as possible.Tunnels cost more to build and they require complicated ventilationsystems, the complexity of which increases as the length of the tunnelincreases. When 2 or more possible paths are considered, all otherthings equal, the shortest path will yield the lowest cost tunnel withthe least complex ventilation system. It is customary and normalpractice today, to select a path that will require the shortest possibletunnel.

Counter to the principles upon which modern tunnels are designed, itbecomes advantageous, under certain circumstances, to increase thetunnel length if one can restrict usage of the tunnel to vehicles thatdo not emit noxious gases. The criteria necessary to enable such atunnel are several, but once enabled a new expectation results. Thelonger the tunnel the more cost effective the vehicular transit becomes.Determining the necessary criteria to exceed break even becomes the newgoal to determine whether or not to build a tunnel along a certainroute.

Tunnel construction is expensive and dangerous. Typical road tunnels cancost $1B per mile to construct. Some companies propose that this can bereduced to $100 M per mile in various ways. But this is still veryexpensive so that only very select routes are chosen to install a tunnelto avoid some obstacle. In this sense, extreme traffic congestion alongan existing surface roadway is, an obstacle. Building a tunnel where noobstacle exists makes no sense today. But if one were able to arrangefor a tunnel to reduce the energy requirement for vehicles travellingwithin, then it would be technically desirable to increase the length oftunnels without bound. The key is to work out the cost of tunnelconstruction and operation compared to the cost of vehicular operationand to find those corridors where installing a tunnel would be costeffective.

Given that this new possibility exists, and upon careful evaluation, onecan arrive at the traffic volume required to make a particular tunnelproject profitable in the sense of shifting some of the vehicularpiloting effort and energy burden from the vehicle to the tunnel system,so that the tunnel operator may charge a toll to recover a portion ofthe vehicular savings. In this case a further extrapolation can bestudied where the cost for tunnel construction is studied so as tominimize the cost per mile to construct a tunnel.

Doing this one will eventually realize that the lowest cost tunnel onecan build is a tunnel built on top of the ground. In other words, atunnel will always come with a material to line the interior of theearth through which the tunnel is bored. But that material would standas well, if it were constructed on the surface of the earth rather thanfollowing a hole cut through a mountain. Appropriate re design of thetunnel wall and roof materials of course being required if the earth isnot present to provide support.

Therefore, it would be nice if the cost of boring a hole through theearth could be eliminated from the cost of building a tunnel where thepurpose of the tunnel is not to get past some obstacle such as amountain or waterway, and is instead, to reduce the energy cost imposedupon vehicles travelling through the tunnel. The lowest costconstruction for this purpose would be to install the tunnel into ashallow trench or onto the surface of the earth, and to then provide thetunnel walls and roof so as to enable the piston effect and KEconservation of the internal air flow. In this way, the cost of boring ahole through the earth is eliminated.

Further, the cost to assemble the roadway walls and roof of such atunnel will be lower since it costs less to assemble the tunnelstructure components above ground than below ground within a tunnel.Within a tunnel one may construct the tunnel using segments to form,typically, circular rings that lock together. Above ground, one can usethe open air to move the structural components around. This enables castin place construction methods but also, precast and further, precast andpost stressed methods. Completed tunnel segment rings, similar to boxculverts, can be precast and then hoisted by crane and set, one afteranother, on top of a suitably compacted dirt base. Working outside,wherever possible, is far less expensive than working within an enclosedtunnel as has been proposed by others. From an aerodynamic perspectivefor vehicles within a tunnel, it doesn't matter if the tunnel is belowground, on the surface of the ground, or elevated above the ground orabove water, or below water. What's important is how the air flow withinthe tunnel is handled and for that, it's important to eliminate toxicexhaust pollutants.

One key way to realize these features, therefore, is to provide a tunnelwith a barrier that blocks entry to toxic exhaust emitting vehicles.

Typically, to build a long tunnel, it has been required to bring tunnelsections into the tunnel from one end while the tunnel is being dug.These sections then fit together and provide support to hold back theearth as the tunnel advances. Typically, long tunnels advance byinstalling rings of precast concrete segments that form into a circularring behind a Tunnel Boring Machine as one example. The final segment ofeach ring is tapered so that the ring becomes stable. Then, grout can beflowed into the segments to lock them together and it can be flowedbehind the segments to provide support for the earth behind thesegmented ring.

It would be faster and less expensive to assemble a tunnel IF completedpre cast tunnel rings could be manufactured and then, one after another,just set into place by use of a crane and trucks to transport the rings.In this sense, a square or rectangular shape that is a continuoussection of a conduit is considered a ring, and the term is notrestricted only to circular rings as in an underground tunnel cut by aTBM. Doing this underground is not possible. But doing this above groundor in a shallow trench open to the atmosphere is possible. It wouldtherefore be advantageous if a tunnel could be built where the tunnel,during construction, is open to the atmosphere and constructionproceeded in a manner similar to construction of a culvert. Building atunnel this way is less costly than building a tunnel far below groundwhere the earth must be excavated and removed down the length of thetunnel, and then a lining must be installed, piece by piece, before theroof of the tunnel collapses.

Given the desire to build a very long tunnel of tens of miles orpreferably hundreds of miles long or even more preferably of thousandsof miles long, it would be advantageous to build a tunnel where thecollapse of overburden on workers is not a concern. This is the case ifthe tunnel is built above ground and/or in a shallow trench that is openabove to the planetary atmosphere, at a minimum, during construction.

The introduction of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has enabled new technologiesto be considered and/or realized. One problem with EVs has been the costof batteries for energy storage. The typical EV range is less thandesirable by most consumers and less than what one would expect forgasoline. Further, with gasoline one can just stop virtually anywhereand fill up within a few minutes and be ready to drive another severalhundred miles. Gas stations within the modern world, are ubiquitous. Thesame is not so with EV charging stations and as well, EV range istypically far shorter than gasoline vehicle range.

It has therefore been an interest to find a new way to communicateenergy to EVs while they are driving on the open road. To that end anumber of solutions have been proposed to date. The only widely enabledinfrastructure today are EV charging stations. While far fewer existthan gas stations, they are available now in a significant number oflocations, and they do enable re charging of electric vehicles. However,they require the electric vehicle to pull off of the roadway, stop andthen charge. They do not convey energy to the vehicle while it is on theroadway.

One proposed solution is to provide a roadway with energized trackssimilar to an electrically “hot” 3rd rail used on subway and othertrains. This model is also similar to a child's toy “slot car” racetrack. It would require EV owners to install electrical pick-ups beneaththe car that absorb energy from the tracks so that the EV could travelan unlimited distance. It is not clear how the energy would be paid foron that concept and it would require construction of a large number ofhigh power, power plants.

Another idea is to install RF coils in roadways that deliver electricalenergy to vehicles while they are moving down the roadway. Some testtracks have been proposed but again this is to date just a concept.

It is further proposed that a solar power and/or wind farm will be builtto provide the electricity to the chargers (charging stations such asSupercharger Network and proposed Megachargers). This is an advantagebecause a solar farm or wind farm can be built by a charge stationoperator at an amortized cost lower than the charge station operator canpurchase electricity from a local utility. To date, the only method fordelivering energy to an EV is to in one manner or another, deliverelectrical energy to the EV. It would be advantageous therefore, ifthere existed another means to deliver sensible energy to an EV whiledriving along a roadway. It would also be an advantage if that originalenergy could come from a renewable energy source such as a solar and/orwind farm alongside the roadway so as to reduce the cost of the originalenergy to the roadway operator.

By harvesting solar and/or wind energy at a farm along a roadway, andthen delivering that energy to an air mover within a roadway conduitsystem, the present roadway conduit system can then conserve the KE ofthe air for the real time benefit of the vehicles within the tunnel. Ifa solution can be found where the cost of operating the air movers,based on the cost of electricity to operate the air movers, is lowerthan the cost to operate the vehicles on a normal roadway, then, theroadway could be useful. To be energetically useful, the energy spent bythe roadway operator must be less than the energy saved by the EVs usingthe novel roadway.

Current roadways are open to the atmosphere and do nothing to reduce theenergy consumed by a vehicle. The interaction with the atmospheredissipates energy and the faster the vehicle goes, the greater the rateof energy dissipation.

Within tunnels where blowers are operated there will manifest anincrease in pressure following a position where blowers are acceleratingthe air within the tunnel. If the pressure rise is large enough it willtrigger ear popping for drivers within the tunnel. It would be anuisance if within a tunnel the air pressure were periodicallyincreasing and decreasing by a degree larger than the ear poppingpressure change, a very small value. A simple blower within a tunnelbore also takes up room within the tunnel, requiring that the entiretunnel inside dimension be larger. It would be advantageous in thepresent disclosure to provide the air movers on top of the tunnels. Thiscan be done since the tunnels are in contact with the atmosphere anddoing so means the roadway conduit interior can be smaller and justlarge enough to enable passage of the intended vehicles, therebyreducing overall construction costs.

It would be advantageous if the air movers utilized within a tunnel hadprovision to control both the interior air velocity and as well, theinterior air pressure. If this were so then the tunnel control systemcould actively control both air velocity and air pressure so that thevelocity could benefit vehicles by reducing aerodynamic energy draw andthe pressure control would benefit occupants within vehicles by reducingear popping discomfort.

Additionally, in the event of a fire within a tunnel, it would beadvantageous to be able to reverse the air flow direction for specifictunnel sections so that smoke laden air could be exhausted appropriatelyregardless of the location of the accident/fire incident. Typicalblowers within tunnels can sometimes be reversed directionally, but theycannot individually emit tunnel air to the outside, nor can they pushoutside clean air into the tunnel. For some tunnel designs, anadditional tunnel shaft is dedicated to ventilation. It is thereforesometimes possible to provide some of the previous performance, but atthe cost of digging a larger overall tunnel.

Ideally, the air movers that cause air within the tunnel to move will bein close proximity to both the tunnel air and the outside atmosphere.For tunnels through mountains, under rivers, or anywhere tunnels aretypically built today, this is not possible. The purpose of the tunnelis to take traffic away from the atmosphere to follow a tube thatbypasses some obstruction. Of necessity, the interior of the tunnel isnot adjacent to the outside atmosphere.

Only by wrapping a conduit around an otherwise open roadway, will theconduit (tunnel of sorts) walls and/or roof be exposed to the outsideatmosphere. In this way, an air mover mounted on top of the tunnel hasdirect access to the air within the tunnel and also, to the outsideatmospheric air. The blower so situated is capable of providingventilation air in case of emergency at any of the air mover positionsby flowing outside air into the tunnel. It is also able to exhaustinside air out. But under normal operation, an air mover so situated iscapable of drawing air out of the tunnel from “behind” and blowing thatair back into the tunnel “ahead” of the air mover at a higher velocity.

It would be advantageous to be able to install a large,multi-directional air mover system into a physically small, tunnel. Itwould be even more advantageous for that air mover system to have accessto fresh air without the added cost of building a larger tunnel so as toprovide a separate tunnel conduit reserved for fresh air provision as istypical in tunnel construction. Therefore a tunnel that has a largenumber of air movers and where each air mover is provided with directaccess to outside air but without the cost associated with boring alarger overall tunnel, would be advantageous.

The present disclosure accomplishes this by having the roadway and/orrailway conduit roof in connection with or proximity to the planetaryatmosphere. By locating the conduit roof above ground, the conduit borecan remain at a fixed cross sectional area and shape, then the bore canincrease in height to provide a path for air to flow up into an airmover. Further forward along the conduit length the opposite can takeplace to provide a path for air to flow into the conduit.

Above the conduit, the same sort of air flow paths can be created forair moving in the forward direction from behind the air mover (relativeto vehicular normal motion within the conduit) and also for air movingin the forward direction and in front of the air mover in the same senseof direction.

This provides two paths for air to flow into the air mover, and twopaths for air to flow out of the air mover. Further, two of the pathsconnect to air within the conduit, and two of the paths connect to airfrom the atmosphere. If in case of building the conduit below a streetso that the top surface is utilized by surface traffic, vehicular,pedestrian or otherwise, it may be necessary to create a short conduitfor air to flow into and out of the air mover to the side of the actualconduit location.

Regarding the conduit interior remaining within 3 meters of the groundsurface for at least one mile. This 3 meter distance is chosen becauseit is too shallow for a tunnel boring machine to operate, too shallowfor dynamite tunnel excavation, and too shallow in general for the roofof a tunnel to be dug below ground without incurring frequent cave inswhile attempting to create a genuine “tunnel.” Such a shallow conduitwill be dug from above making it distinct from a true “tunnel.” Beingthis close to the surface means the construction creates a trench andnot a tunnel, with the conduit being set down into the open trench inorder to create the enclosed conduit.

In this way, a roadway conduit or Railway Conduit is distinct from aRoadway Tunnel or Railway Tunnel. The 3 meter to the surface distinctiondoes not, however, apply to the air flow as under certain citingchoices, it may be desirable to locate air inlets and outlets a slightlygreater distance than 3 meters from where the air mover is if it happensto be covered and just below ground to enable installation along anexisting city street where the street will later be put back into use.

The 1 mile distance is again to distinguish these conduits, installed intrenches, from true tunnels that are bored below ground and then lined.Tunnels, as they arrive back to atmospheric connection, will for a veryshort distance be within this 3 meter distance. However, they do notremain at that shallow a distance for very long and certainly not for anentire mile. To build a system within 3 meters for a length greater than1 mile yields a completely new device.

In general, however, for conduits being built to cover large distancessuch as cross country conduits, the top of the conduit will be incontact with the planetary atmosphere. Therefore, the normal air moverinstallation will be where there is a direct connection for air flowinto and out of the air mover both from within the conduit and also fromthe atmosphere. The system with louvers creating 4 air flow paths out ofthe 2×2 path combinations. By additionally installing a reversible airmover where the air flow direction can be reversed, the system becomes a2×2×2=8 air flow paths. One path, atmosphere to atmosphere, may notnormally be used except if an air mover with a long spool up time ischosen as the air mover, and, precision conduit internal air velocityand pressure control is desired. In that case, it can be useful to getthe air mover to full speed and then just use the air path vanes tomodify the air flow directions.

Another problem with existing tunnels is noise. At freeway speeds, theprimary sources of noise are the vehicle engine and the tiresinteracting with the roadway surface. Vehicle engine noise can beeliminated if one provides an ICE barrier to the tunnel entrance so thatengines are not operating within the conduit. Tire noise can be reducedby providing the interior roadway with a rubberized asphalt coating.Building a roadway conduit system that includes an ICE barrier and arubberized roadway, will improve the travel experience of occupants ofvehicles travelling the conduit system of the present disclosure.

Conduit interior noise is also a function of acoustic pressurereflections from hard concrete walls and ceiling within the tunnel bore.By coating the roadway conduit interior with a rubberized asphalt roadbase, the sound generation of tires is reduced. But so too is the soundabsorption increased. Reflected sound that strikes the rubberizedsurface will be damped better than if it had encountered concrete.

The walls are also hard and acoustic reflective surfaces. It would beadvantageous to provide a tunnel with material coverings that absorb anddamp acoustic pressure vibrations while at the same time, conserving lowfrequency pressure waves associated with air flow within the tunnels andthe piston effect of vehicles. An ideal surface coating will conservelow frequency pressure variations while also damping audible pressurevariations. There are additionally some shapes that can be added to thewalls and ceilings that help reflect acoustic energy more frequently soas to damp out internal noise better.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure the roadway surface isprovided with a rubberized asphalt covering, the walls are provided withlongitudinal grooves to multiply reflect acoustic energy while notsignificantly damping longitudinal air flow down the conduit bore, andthe walls and ceilings are provided with acoustic damping material thatagain, damps audible acoustic energy but does not damp lower frequencyvehicular pressure waves and/or air flow within the conduit bore. It isof course always the case that a tradeoff between desires is chosen sothese are exemplary options to be included and not required for thepresent disclosure to function.

It can be mentioned that grooves in the walls and ceiling can reduceacoustic interior noise by increasing the number of reflections. Foracoustics, it doesn't matter if the grooves are vertical or horizontal.But vertical grooves would increase conduit air flow resistance morethan would longitudinal grooves. Therefore, longitudinal grooves arepreferable. Yet more preferable is to cover the walls and ceiling andincluding within the grooves if so constructed, with a coating materialthat damps acoustic energy to reduce interior noise.

Within a tunnel where lighting is provided, it is advantageous toprovide lights at a sufficiently high repetition rate that the lightvariation is faster than about 100 Hz so as to avoid triggeringepileptic seizures in occupants of vehicles using the roadway conduitsystem. As in some embodiments of the present disclosure it isanticipated that the conduits will at times be used by vehiclestravelling as fast as 240 mph, the distance travelled in oneone-hundredth of a second, 0.01 seconds, is 10.56 inches. The spacingsfor regular lighting to avoid epileptic seizures for 240 mph should bemore closely spaced than this. For 60 mph transit the spacing should beless than 4 times this figure, or, about 44 inches. For any velocityapplication anticipated here, LED lighting with 1 inch spacings betweenindividual LEDs will suffice.

Tunnels require emergency exits and/or places of refuge. Preferably, incase of emergency, a tunnel will have an exit path to the outsideatmosphere. The norm is that a long distance exists between exits andonce in the exit they typically have a long tunnel or stairway to arriveoutside the tunnel system to the outside atmosphere. However it is oftenthe case that the exit only goes to a room where refuge can be taken asthe distance to the outside atmosphere is too far for some of theanticipated physical condition of some refugees such as elderly ordisabled people.

This is the case when a tunnel penetrates a mountain. And if a tunneltransits beneath a body of water, then one must walk all the way out ofthe tunnel or make some provision for an emergency vehicle to accesspeople trapped beneath the body of water.

Typically, the longer a tunnel happens to be, the longer the pathway onemust traverse to get to the outside atmosphere. It would, therefore, beadvantageous if it were possible to walk through a door that separatesthe tunnel interior and the atmospheric exterior, without needing towalk down a long corridor to arrive at the outside atmosphere oralternately needing to take refuge in a closed and ventilated room deepunder a mountain or beneath a body of water in case of smoke and/orfire. Roadway conduit systems provide this benefit as they are built forthe most part, immediately adjacent to the outside planetary atmosphere.Once a refugee exits a conduit doorway, they are normally, immediatelyout of the conduit way and in the outside atmosphere, free from anysmoke within the conduit way during an emergency such as a fire.

In case of smoke or fire, the ability to quickly exit the tunnel tooutside air via a short distance path is extremely valuable. The presentdisclosure accomplishes this because the conduit bore is always close tothe outside ambient atmosphere. Escape doors and walkways can be createdwithin a roadway conduit bore at spacings closer than practical fortypical tunnels because atmospheric proximity reduces the cost ofproviding exit paths.

It would be advantageous if there were a way for a tunnel to be providedwith a door such that during an emergency event with lots of smoke,inside the door was the air within the tunnel, and outside the door,without needing to walk down a long corridor or up a long flight ofstairs, was immediately wide open to the atmosphere and clean air. Inthis way, roadway conduits are far superior to tunnels.

Inevitably along a long cross country roadway, drivers will require reststops. If a tunnel conduit is built along the central median of anexisting surface roadway, for example I-5 between Sacramento and LosAngeles, it would be possible to provide exits from the tunnel out tothe surface roadway. A vehicle could then merge with traffic, crosstraffic and take a later exit from the surface roadway. This is onereasonable and optional solution to exiting a roadway conduit system.One problem with this approach is that typically the fastest vehiclelane is adjacent to the roadway conduit system when the conduit systemis located in the median of an existing roadway.

It would be advantageous, however, if as an option, entrances and exitsinto and out of the tunnel way system could be realized withoutrequiring vehicles to cross the existing surface roadway lanes.

If tunnel conduits could be built that drop below grade and then crossbeneath existing road lanes, then entrances and exits could be providedclose to existing surface roadway entrances and exits on the slow (inthe US, right) side of the surface roadway. An entrance to the tunnelcould be provided along a normal entrance to the surface freeway.

Likewise, an exit from the roadway conduit system could be provided thatpasses beneath the surface roadway and emerges to the side of thesurface freeway prior to the surface freeways normal exit location. Thisoptional method enables vehicles exiting the roadway conduit system tomerge with vehicles exiting the surface roadway system along an exitpath. Likewise, vehicles entering the roadway conduit system could do sofrom along a normal surface roadway entrance and vehicles entering eachroadway system then diverge while still on the entrance ramp. Thiseliminates the need for ingress or egress vehicles to cross the surfaceroadway lanes and is a safer method for ingress and egress of theroadway conduit system.

In addition to utilizing existing surface freeway entrance and exitramps for conduit system ingress and egress paths, it will also beuseful to provide ingress egress locations that communicate vehicles toa property adjacent to the roadway conduit system where a renewableenergy farm can be constructed. Vehicles can exit at these locations tore charge prior to continuing on the voyage. As well, the ingress andegress roadways can be used to communicate power cables to the roadwayconduit systems including air movers, lights and other systems.

As EV charging will require a large amount of energy, it would beadvantageous to build solar and wind farms along roadway conduit systemsto provide the power needed to operate. Even with the roadway conduitsability to reduce the energy consumption of vehicles, eventually onlonger trips, EVs will run low on energy (e.g. battery charge state). Itwill therefore be advantageous to provide rest stations similar toexisting gas stations for ICE vehicles and Supercharger stations forEVs.

However, unlike a gas station, an EV charging station coupled to a solarfarm or wind farm requires a far larger property size. A solar farm topower both EV charging and roadway conduit systems may require 100 to500 acres of land whereas a gas station or EV charging station requiresperhaps one eighth of a single acre. The difference in land requirementfor these two different uses is of order 1,000.

Providing an EV charging location connected to a renewable energy farmnear a normal surface roadway or freeway entrance/exit interchanges canbe prohibitively expensive due to increased cost of land close tointerchanges. Just one or more miles from an interchange, along aroadway where there are no freeway entrances or exits, the cost of landis typically very much lower. The cost of large tracts of land can costone percent of the cost near an existing surface freeway on and offramp.

The present disclosure affords a roadway conduit builder a completelynew option for accessing properties adjacent to a limited access roadwaysuch as the US Interstate system freeways. By creating an entrance andexit interchange to the roadway conduit system that drops below grade,passes beneath the surface roadway, and then emerges back on the surfaceof the ground alongside the surface roadway or freeway on landpreviously not having a connection to the freeway it is possible toacquire land at perhaps 1% to 10% of the cost of land per acre close toan existing interchange.

In this way the present disclosure enables the low cost creation of reststops and re charging stations that are next to but separate from, theexisting surface freeway system and which additionally include a solar,wind or other renewable energy farm requiring a large plot of land,where the renewable energy system provides the energy to charge orotherwise deliver energy into the vehicles using the roadway conduitsystem.

Such a feature also provides a path through which electrical powercables can be run from the renewable energy farm into the roadwayconduit system so as to power air movers and other equipment within theroadway conduit system. This would avoid the need to cut a trench fromadjacent land, across various rights of way to arrive at the tunnelsystem where the power is required. In this way, the renewable energyfarm described in the present disclosure will provide energy to powerboth vehicular charging infrastructure for all sorts of vehicular energyforms, and as well, energy to power the roadway or railway conduitsystem equipment.

Additionally, some EVs are now provided with Autonomous Control hardwareand software. But these features are not yet approved for use on publicroadways. Within roadway conduits, the danger associated with a loss ofcontrol of an EV is dramatically reduced. There is nothing to crash intoexcept for the sidewalls which are typically concrete and able towithstand a collision.

It would be advantageous to enable autonomously controlled vehicles tooperate within the roadway conduits. This proving ground could helpspeed deployment on surface roadways by enabling safe operation in amore controlled roadway system where experience can be gained.

By providing connected rest stops, an autonomous vehicle could traveldown a roadway conduit, exit and be re-charged, then re-enter andcomplete a journey to destination all without travelling on publicroadways and also without a human driver to pilot the vehicle. Evenpiloted vehicles could exit the roadway conduit system to a rest stopwhere the vehicle could be charged and the people could find food andtake a rest stop break.

On the open road today, there exist a great number of vehicles with asmany different shapes. The high speed energy performance of thesevehicles varies, generally, according to their aerodynamic coefficientof drag, Ca. Vehicle manufacturers go to great lengths to reduce thisterm so that the energy consumed per mile driven is reduced.

Within roadway conduits, however, if the air movers keep the air movingat close to the speed of the vehicle, then the aerodynamic drag is lowor zero. In this case, it is no longer an advantage to spend extra moneyon creating aerodynamic shapes that reduce the drag. Instead, it becomesadvantageous to build a vehicle that is the lowest cost to construct andwhich encloses the largest possible volume for occupants and cargo touse, a completely different set of criteria.

Examples of low cost of construction vehicle shape for high speedtransport within a roadway conduit are airport push back tractorswhereas examples of high cost vehicles are modern Tesla Model S,Roadster 2, and Tesla Semi just revealed. The latter having a Ca around0.36. This value is less than a supercar Bugatti Chiron at 0.38 and muchlower than similar semi-trucks which typically range from 0.6 to 0.7.This means that per unit frontal area, the Tesla Semi-truck has a verylow cost of operation.

However, if the travel is within a roadway conduit, and the air in theroadway conduit is moving with the vehicles, then the aerodynamic dragimposed upon the vehicles is zero, regardless of vehicle shape (Ca). Inthis case, there is no reason to incur the extra expense of packagingvehicles into a low Ca package. instead, it makes better sense to buildthe lowest cost shape device possible, within aesthetic reason. Giventhat roadway conduits enable this option, it would be advantageous todevelop a new vehicle that provides the function in a lower cost packagewhere aerodynamic exterior shape is not a primary driving criteria fordesign.

Within tunnels today, individual vehicles are independent. They move inways controlled by the driver, disconnected from information about roadconditions ahead. Every driver takes independent actions. The presentdisclosure includes a roadway conduit control system that enablessimultaneous communications between the control system and vehicles sothat information is immediately communicated when, for example, anaccident occurs or debris in the roadway is observed by one of thevehicles.

When a roadway conduit is built to enable autonomous control of vehicleswithin the roadway conduit, several new issues arise. First, the roadwayconduit system could be able to identify individual vehicles within theroadway conduit. Upon entry, the roadway conduit system could assign anID to each vehicle, and ultimately, the roadway conduit control systemmay approve entry of each vehicle, based on calculations of overallroadway conduit vehicle throughput assuming both that the new vehicle isallowed to enter, or not.

The roadway conduit control system may then track each vehicle so thatthe ID remains connected to the vehicle. This may be performed usingsensors within the roadway conduit as well as direct communication(s)between the vehicle and the conduit control system. There may beprovided a bi-directional communication system so that vehicles can sendinformation to the roadway conduit control system and the roadwayconduit control system can send information to the vehicles.

The roadway conduit control system is preferentially capable ofreceiving video imagery from vehicles showing where debris/obstaclesexist within the roadway conduits so that cleanup crews can be,preferentially, autonomously dispatched to remove the debris.

It would be an advantage if a roadway conduit control system existedthat was capable of interacting with vehicles travelling down theroadway conduit so that transit within the roadway conduit is safer thantravel on surface roadways. For example, the roadway conduit controlsystem could slow or stop traffic during the cleanup of debrisdiscovered within the roadway conduit, if there existed a control systemcapable of controlling the motion of vehicles within the roadwayconduit. Also, it would be an advantage if the roadway conduit controlsystem existed that would command vehicles when to enter and calculatedtheir individual traffic imposition on the entire roadway conduittraffic system so that stop and go traffic was never allowed.

Typically today in case of an accident toward the end of a tunnel, avehicle at an entrance to the tunnel roadway would just enter as usualsince there is no communication to that vehicle that a problem just tookplace at the far end of (in other words, within) the tunnel.

The present disclosure fixes this by instructing a vehicle desiring toenter the roadway conduit system, to not enter due to the emergencycondition further up the conduit. In this way, the conduit is notplugged with vehicles that could have been kept out of the system afterthe accident had been detected.

The roadway conduit control system already knowing the position andvelocity of every vehicle within the entire length of the roadwayconduit system so that the roadway conduit system can calculate theimpact of the new vehicle on the entire traffic flow and determine thebest timing for a new vehicle to enter the roadway conduit. In the caseof the accident, the roadway conduit control system would communicate toall vehicles within the roadway conduit to come to an emergency stop andpotentially, to reverse and exit the roadway conduit if the emergencysituation warranted.

Existing tunnels do not have such a control system and for that reasonvehicles drive at full speed until they encroach upon the accident, atwhich point they enter an emergency stop condition which in the study oftraffic patterns is in a sense, a fluid dynamic shock wave thatoriginates at the accident and propagates backward into the oncomingtraffic until all traffic is stopped. Only after this “shock wave”propagates back beyond the entrance would a vehicle know to not enter.If a traffic control system were added to a tunnel, then the decisionson how to resolve an emergency condition would be far more rapid and thecondition would be resolved sooner, restoring normal traffic flow morequickly.

It is, therefore, an object of the disclosed embodiments to provide aconduit system with a conduit control system that monitors all vehiclesand incidents within the conduit system and which is able to take actionin case of emergency situations, directing vehicles to take actionsincluding to wait until a problem is cleared, or, to back out of theconduit to make room for emergency workers, or other actions.

Another aspect of a conduit control system is that to communicate tovehicles under autonomous control, a much greater volume of informationcan be communicated visually using bar coding than can be communicatedwith words to human drivers. Therefore, it will be advantageous toinstall bar coding of various styles to communicate to vehicles more so,or instead of, or in addition to, written words to people. The vehiclecan then communicate information to occupants of the vehicle by means ofa display within the vehicle.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is for the roadway conduitcontrol system to provide information to vehicle occupants to show theoccupants what the outside view would be if they were not inside aconduit. This can be realized via recording the exterior view in avariety of ways including driving surround cameras down adjacent surfaceroads. Further, the conduit control system can optionally communicatethe vehicle location on a map display that also shows other possibledestinations along the route including for example, the locations ofupcoming charging locations and rest stops. Such information can becommunicated to a display within the vehicle so that occupants canactually “look” in different directions to see what the outside lookslike where they are.

Another optional aspect of the present disclosure is to provide theroadway conduits with windows through which vehicle occupants can viewthe outside world.

For long autonomous controlled trips, the roadway conduit control systemcan provide a journey display showing origin, destination, transit path,current location, time to destination, distance to destination and otherparameters of interest.

Creating these features becomes important when the vehicles are confinedwithin a roadway conduit system. Distances and locations of rest stoplocations along the route being followed are also of interest for such asystem.

Existing tunnels do not have lengths measured in hundreds or thousandsof miles, so the problem of occupant boredom is seldom if ever dealtwith in existing tunnels. Trains and airplanes do deal with passengersconfined within the vehicle for extended periods of time The longestroad tunnel (Laerdal in Norway) is just 15 miles. For trains, thelongest tunnel is the Gotthard Base Tunnel at 35.5 miles long.Traversing these tunnels takes a little while, but the experience isrelatively short compared to a cross country journey of hundreds tothousands of miles.

Amenities provided by existing tunnels are few, as the same are short.If one builds a roadway conduit of a thousand miles length, completelynew and different features become useful. Current tunnels do nottypically provide information to enable one to know where they arerelative to the outside. There may be markers that indicate distancewithin a tunnel, or distance to an emergency shelter. But for a movingvehicle within a roadway conduit, it would be nice if the roadwayconduit system communicated information as to position relative toexternal features. In particular, it would be nice if the roadwayconduit system provided information including imagery, showing what theoutside world at a position within the roadway conduit, looks like.

Another curious problem with modern roadways within the US and the worldis that vehicles are built that are capable of much faster travel thanthe maximum speed limit allowed on open Interstate Freeways. Typically,the maximum velocity is 65 mph with some areas at as high as 80 mph.Vehicles, on the other hand, are built with top speeds of up to 250 mph.Numerous vehicles have top speeds over 100 mph. Yet they are notallowed, legally, to travel on US freeways at those velocities.

It would be desirable for a roadway to be created where the top speedallowed on the roadway, is over 100 mph. Even if travel at that velocitywas enabled during certain restricted hours, someone with a fastervehicle could utilize the roadway to make a journey at faster thannormal speeds. Allowing mixed velocity limits would of course require aroadway conduit control system to clear slower vehicles out of the wayof faster vehicles.

It would be nice if a roadway conduit was fitted with a method forslower vehicles to get out of the way of faster vehicles.

In one configuration of the present disclosure, one or more sections ofroadway conduit could be provided with two lanes in place of the normalsingle lane. The two lane section may be one or two miles in length.Slower vehicles can pull off onto the extra lane while faster vehiclespass. This is analogous to a railway siding track.

In one embodiment, a series of two lane sections are disposedperiodically down the length of a long roadway conduit system. A centralcontroller communicates to all vehicles within the conduit system.Vehicles at say 240 mph are directed to group themselves into a platoonof vehicles while vehicles at say 120 mph are directed to groupthemselves into a second platoon of vehicles.

Within a single lane roadway conduit, the faster vehicles will catch upwith the slower vehicles. the velocities can be different as desired,for example, 70 mph and 140 mph. The slower velocity would enablesemi-trucks to become part of the slower platoons while faster cars makeup the faster platoon.

It can be arranged that the faster vehicles catch up with the slowervehicles as the slower vehicles have finished entering the two lanesections of the roadway conduit sections. In this way, the fastervehicles can pass the slower vehicles on the two lane sections. Then,the two lane sections can narrow back into a single lane section. Inthis way, vehicles using the same single lane (for the majority ofdistance) roadway conduit can travel at two different velocities, forexample, 70 mph and 140 mph. And, neither of the vehicle platoons needto adjust their velocities or stop to allow the faster vehicles to pass(as railroads do with sidings). All vehicles travel at their nominalspeed all of the time to destination.

This is possible by arranging the locations of the double wide lanes tomatch the vehicular velocities one desires to enable within the roadwayconduit system. In at least one embodiment, the entrances and exits toadjacent EV charging stations and rest stops can be positioned alongsidethe double wide lanes so that if a faster vehicle desires to exit, itcan fall out of platoon formation with the faster vehicles and shiftover to join the platoon of slower vehicles during the double wide lanesections, and then exit the conduit roadway system by following anegress roadway connected to the double wide section of the conduit.

Ideally, the roadway conduit control system will also direct vehiclesahead and behind of a fast vehicle desiring to exit the platoon androadway conduit system, to yield space to enable a safer exit of thefast vehicle.

Pavement cracking and crumbling is a major problem incurred by roadwaybuilders. Over time, the repeated heating and cooling of a roadway as itcycles from day to night, and from summer to winter, causes the pavementto expand and contract. This action can be significant. A 40 foot longpiece of concrete can easily expand by a quarter of an inch due tothermal changes.

This action is responsible for breaking and cracking pavement and candramatically shorten the pavement life. It is desirable therefore toreduce the thermal changes experienced by a pavement so as to increasethe life span of that pavement.

The present disclosure improves the life span of a roadway pavement in 2ways. First, the Roadway conduit ways are provided with a full enclosureof the roadway pavement so that the sun never hits the pavement to heatit. This eliminates the day to night thermal cycle. Further, because thebase of the conduit, which is the roadway, is in contact with the earth,it is in contact with a thermal sink that further reduces thermalchanges. And finally, the present disclosure can in some embodiments beinstalled partially buried so that the roadway is in contact with earthapproximately 6 to 10 feet below the normal surface of the local ground.The earth at this depth undergoes a dramatically reduced temperatureswing, compared to earth near the surface, over the course of a year.

Optimal construction is where the conduit way is mostly buried and theroad base is approximately 16 feet below grade. In this condition, thetemperature of the road base is nearly constant year round and thermaldegradation of the pavement is virtually eliminated. This constructionmethod is, however, more expensive so that the choice for depth ofconduit way installation will be determined for individual projectsdepending upon a number of variables, thermal cycling being one. Thesevary from one location to another around the world.

Ideally to reduce the cost of operation of the roadway conduit system,the energy to power the air movers and other systems will be provided byrenewable energy farms such as solar, wind, hydro and the like,connected directly to the roadway conduit system devices, avoiding autility middleman cost. Further, to provide power day and night theroadway conduit system will preferably be provided with one or moreenergy storage devices, such as, in ground compressed air storage,battery electric storage, rail car gravity energy storage and the like.

To conform to the present disclosure, the roadway conduit system may beconstructed such that the energy produced by any energy farm is providedfirst to the roadway conduit system itself. If first sold to a utilityand then energy is purchased from the utility, the cost for the energywould be significantly greater, as is the case today for all largeutility class renewable energy installations. Therefore, the test forwhether a device meets the present disclosures designs is whether or notthe device is capable of operating its roadway conduit systems, 24/7, asan islanded system under normal weather conditions.

An “islanded” electrical system is here defined as a system where, ifthere were no connection to a utility, the roadway conduit systems wouldbe able to operate by using the electrical energy produced by the one ormore renewable energy farms connected to the roadway conduit system.Again, while the term “Roadway” is used preferentially in this document,the term “Railway” should be understood to also be intended as anoptional and/or additional component and/or construction of the ConduitSystem.

If the roadway conduit system could Usefully function without derivingenergy from a utility which is to say, while being disconnected from anyutility for a period of time during average local weather, and istherefore an islanded electrical system separate from the utility, thenit is by definition an islanded electrical roadway conduit system.

Freeways and road transportation across land is a ubiquitous method oftravel around the world today. Cars, trucks, semi-truck trailers andother vehicle types travel roadways from one location to another,carrying passengers, goods and freight. Likewise, rail way vehiclesperform a similar function using steel wheels and steel rails to rollalong thereby reducing the rolling drag energy losses. All of thesevehicle transportation methods face the same aerodynamic drag energylosses that scale non linearly with velocity.

The drag force is proportional to the drag coefficient times the frontalarea times the velocity squared. The power required to propel a vehicleis therefore proportional to the velocity cubed. The aerodynamic powerrequired to double the velocity of a vehicle is 8 times greater. Becausethe frontal area of a vehicle results from vehicle amenities and otherdesign choices, and the velocity is chosen by the driver and istherefore not a design parameter per se, design engineers seeking toreduce the energy cost for transportation with a particular vehiclefocus exclusively on reducing the value of the coefficient of drag forthat vehicle.

Vehicle engineers go to great lengths, expending large R&D funds toimprove the vehicular drag coefficient by creating aerodynamic shapesthat impose a smaller drag force. In a sense, road vehicle designers arefollowing in the footsteps of aerodynamic designers of aircraft thathave for decades dealt with moving vehicles at high velocity throughair.

Recently, for example, Tesla engineers introduced a new class 8semi-truck with a 0.36 coefficient of drag. This value is lower thanmost cars on the road and about half that of a typical class 8semi-truck which have a drag coefficient around 0.7. This means that permile travelled, the Tesla semi-truck and trailer combination willconsume about half as much energy to overcome aerodynamic resistance tomove the new Tesla semi-truck from one location to another compared to atypical Diesel class 8 semi-truck. Rolling resistance was also reducedand is a separate energy term for vehicular transit.

A tail wind may reduce the energy a vehicle expends driving along aroadway. Land speed record attempts must be conducted in two opposingdirections within a short period of time to eliminate the potential forrunning a record attempt and using a tail wind to skew the top speed.

It has been proposed by a few people that within tunnels of a fewdesigns and for different vehicles (bicycle, train, car), that byblowing air down the tunnel in the direction of vehicle travel, that theenergy required for the vehicle to move along the tunnel per unitdistance could be reduced.

In spite of this knowledge, vehicles still travel along surface roadwayswhere the benefits cannot be realized. While true that one can reducethe energy cost for the vehicle by the known method of blowing air downa tunnel, it is also true that there is an energy cost for driving theair and that this energy cost is normally greater than the energysavings for a typical vehicle. while one could do this, no one hasbecause of the cost being higher than the benefit.

Further, the cost of proposed solutions for energy reduction is fargreater than the cost of a surface roadway. The situation is such thatno such vehicle tunnels have been constructed for the purpose ofreducing vehicular energy consumption.

To be commercially viable and therefore Useful, moving air to benefitvehicles within a tunnel is not sufficient. To date there does not exista single long distance or cross continent tunnel that was constructedfor the purpose of benefiting vehicles by reducing vehicular energyconsumption. All tunnels today are built to circumvent some obstacle inthe path of a desired vehicular route. The fact that some tunnels mayalso benefit vehicles via internal air motions is happenstance. Moreoften than not, tunnel operators design tunnels such that they impose aparasitic drag to the vehicles, the opposite of a benefit provided tothe vehicle.

One problem with existing tunnels is that they cost so much toconstruct, that by the time one builds a tunnel and then computes theamortized cost for doing so, the construction cost payments exceedvehicle energy benefit. for this and many other reasons, tunnels are notconstructed to benefit vehicles other than by providing a path thatcircumvents some obstacle such as a mountain or waterway.

For example, if a tunnel were to be dug between San Francisco and NewYork City and air were blown down it, the energy required to translate avehicle between those two locations could be reduced. However, buildingsuch a tunnel could cost trillions of dollars and in the end, theamortized cost for building the tunnel would for all known designs, begreater than the savings enjoyed by the vehicles. Further, the cost ofblowing air down the length of that tunnel would be vastly greater thanthe energy cost of driving the vehicle along a surface roadway. Thismeans that operating the tunnel would cost far more than the energy costto operate a vehicle on an open roadway. If the benefit is to berealized, a new tunnel design must be found.

The enormous cost of building tunnels, as heretofore imagined, hasblocked roadway builders from applying the knowledge of potentialvehicular energy benefit to real world roadways.

In fact, the longest road tunnel in the world is the Laerdal tunnel inNorway and it is just 15 miles long. And that tunnel has bi directionaltraffic within. Meaning, they didn't even bother to use the vehiclepiston effect (described below) to benefit their ventilation systems letalone to provide any potential benefit to the vehicles travellingwithin. The reason is simply that a single bore tunnel costs less than atwin bore tunnel and vehicle energy savings was likely not considered.The tunnel saved a couple hours drive around a mountain range, and thattime savings is the reason it was constructed. The energy used to move avehicle 15 miles is so small that it is ignored in tunnel design.

The opposite of reducing vehicular energy consumption, the norm fortunnel designs is to design the tunnels in such a way that theyparasitically consume energy from vehicles. The consumption is smallenough that vehicle drivers don't notice it because the tunnels are soshort.

Modern tunnels consume energy from vehicles, parasitically, by takingadvantage of the fact that when vehicles drive through a tunnel at highspeed, they cause the air in the tunnel to flow in the direction ofvehicular travel. This effect is well known to engineers in the field oftunnel design as the “piston” effect where a vehicle imparts kineticenergy to the air it is moving through.

Typically, this effect is used to benefit tunnel operators by reducingthe cost to perform the necessary tunnel function of ventilation toexpel toxic vehicle exhaust fumes from within the tunnel. The vehicularpiston effect is used to reduce the energy a tunnel operator must supplyto ventilation fans. Rather than using fans to move air through thetunnel to expel exhaust fumes, tunnels consume a small portion of energyfrom the vehicles instead, reducing the operation cost of running thetunnel ventilation systems.

In essence, the common practice of tunnel operators is to parasiticallytake energy from vehicles using their tunnel so that their electricitybills required to drive blowers for ventilation of the tunnel, arereduced. Each vehicle operator pays a small cost in fuel consumption (inaddition to any toll charged) when they move through a single borelongitudinal ventilation tunnel system. However, given that the longestsingle bore tunnels are 12 miles long or less, this cost is very small(a few pennies per vehicle) and not noticed. Hence, the common practiceto use the piston effect rather than spend money on electricity forblowers in bi directional tunnels such as Laerdal. (Laerdal is a bidirectional tunnel that doesn't take advantage of the piston effect). Ofcourse, building a twin tunnel costs more than a single bore tunnel sothe amortized construction costs must be compared to savings inoperational costs for electricity to run blowers.

Building tunnels is extremely expensive. Tunnel construction can cost $1billion per mile for modern freeway tunnels. The Boring Company proposesto build smaller tunnels with the goal of circumventing stop and gotraffic on freeways and projects a cost reduction to $100 million permile or possibly less. Given these costs, experimentation with whetheror not it may be possible to build a cross country tunnel from SanFrancisco to New York City, is not practical. At 3,000 miles a tunnelwould cost around $300 Billion. At $100 M per mile a Sacramento to LosAngeles tunnel would cost about $45 billion dollars just to experimentwith whether or not such a tunnel venture might be useful from acommercial perspective.

For whatever reasons, in spite of a few references to the potentialenergy savings of vehicles, there has been no long distance tunnelsystem developed that solves both the reduction of vehicular energydemand and, the proposal of a way to viably and therefore usefully doit. Once one considers the cost of such a real tunnel, it has to datebeen clear that the energy savings of vehicles does not justify theconstruction of a such transit tunnel.

Today, therefore, the focus on saving energy during vehicle transit isfocused on improving vehicular aerodynamics, as is evidenced by therecent Tesla semi-truck with significantly reduced aerodynamiccoefficient of drag.

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are a new entrant in the road vehicle categoryand they afford designers with some new capabilities yet to be realized,and new problems yet to be solved.

One problem with EVs is that they have a limited range. This is dueprimarily to the battery size and cost. If there were a way to reducethe energy consumption of a vehicle, per mile of roadway, or, if therewere a way to deliver energy to a vehicle on a long distance roadway,then the range of vehicles in general and EVs in particular, would beincreased.

With the latest EVs having over 200 mile range, local driving is solved.But charge times on long distance trips is still a problem. If thereexisted a way to increase the long distance range of an EV it would helpEVs compete with ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles and increasetheir market share in the vehicle sales market space.

In yet another technology area today, it is common for solar and/or windfarms to sell electrical energy to utilities at below 4 cents (US) perkWh. Solar and wind farms generate so much electrical power that only autility is able to use all of it by delivering it to a large number ofcommercial, industrial, and residential customers. No single businessuses an amount of energy as is produced by large renewable energy farmsof utility class scale.

Elsewhere in the technology arena, the oil industry sells gasoline tovehicle owners where the end cost after converting chemical energy intomechanical motion energy can run from a low of around 14 cents per kWhfor high efficiency Diesel engines to around 40 cents per kWh for moretypical gasoline engines. Fuel thermal content is customarily referencedin BTUs, but both BTU and kWh are energy terms and so one can convertbetween the two. That said, it is not normal to compare the units ofmiles per gallon of Diesel to the units of kilowatt hours per mile inspite of the fact that both are an energy consumption per miletravelled. One deals with fuel while the other deals with electricity.Still, it can be quickly noticed that both 14 cents and 40 cents fuelcosts are greater than 4 cents electricity production cost.

A quick look at the above facts demonstrate why Tesla has asserted itsintention to connect its Supercharger stations to solar farms it buildsand operates. By doing so, Tesla will be able to earn more from itssolar installations than it could by selling the energy to an electricalutility. For example, along I-5 in California at the Harris RanchSupercharger station, one motorist paid 20 cents per kWh for electricityto charge his Tesla EV. This is 5 times what a solar farm to producethat energy would have earned, and, it is likely just a little bithigher than what is paid to the utility for providing that electricalenergy.

It should be no surprise, then, that it makes good sense to develop andbuild renewable energy farms to power chargers for vehicles. If thereexisted another way to communicate energy from a renewable energy farmto vehicles, it would provide another way for renewable energy farms toearn more income than they can earn selling their energy to utilities.

Land transportation today for freight and passengers include roadvehicles and rail vehicles. Rail vehicles, or trains, typically runalong steel tracks. This is superior to road vehicles which run onrubber wheels and incur a larger energy loss per mile travelled. Trainsare typically composed of one or several engines pulling a larger numberof “cars” where within the cars are typically passengers and/or freight.Freight can be anything from coal to goods to large machines orstructures. Most train engines are powered by Diesel Engines while some,typically faster passenger routes like Shinkansen in Japan and TGV inFrance are powered by electric motors.

Typically, the electrical energy fed to electric trains is communicatedto the trains by overhead power transmission lines. The trains haveelectric pickups that slide along the power wires above and communicateelectrical energy into the train and to the trains electric motors.

Essentially all vehicles on the roads and railways today are gasoline orDiesel, Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), vehicles. Roadways andrailways are therefore designed to meet the requirements of suchvehicles. When designing tunnels, one major cost is to installventilation systems to handle the enormous volume of pollutants emittedby these vehicles. Tunnels are built to enable a traveler to bypass someobstacle such as a mountain or waterway. As such they are built alongthe shortest possible route that is able to enable vehicles to bypass anobstacle.

A higher speed transit system called Hyperloop is in development bymultiple entities. This is a system where a tube or conduit isconstructed and then the air is removed so that pods can travel withinthe tube at velocities comparable to jet aircraft. Air travel and trainand bus travel are also available to people desiring to travel betweenplaces. Except for road travel, all other travel means typically requireleaving one's car behind and finding transportation at the destination.In contrast, driving along roadways requires the driver to be attentivefor long periods of time, the trip takes longer than planes orHyperloop, but when one arrives at a destination he/she has theirvehicle to drive around the destination, saving the cost of parking thecar at the origin and rental or taxis at the destination.

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are today just starting to become a significantvehicle choice. Currently they comprise perhaps two thousandths of theinstalled base of road vehicles. Roadways, for this reason, are stillbuilt to serve ICE vehicles and not EVs. However, it is anticipated thatEVs will become increasingly important as a vehicle option, with growingsales and fleet percentages in the future. EVs enable new roadwaytechnologies to be contemplated, created, and deployed. EVs, however,suffer from among other things, limited range.

Today, as a vehicle moves faster on an open roadway, the aerodynamicdrag imposed upon that vehicle is increased non linearly. For EVs withlimited range, this is a serious problem. Numerous reports detail wherean EV driver had to slow down to ridiculous velocities so that theydidn't run out of battery energy prior to reaching a charger. An EV can,for example, double its range by slowing from freeway speeds down toaround 25 mph where aerodynamic energy loss is greatly reduced. If a newroadway could be constructed that improved the long distance range ofEVs then their adoption would accelerate. The same goes for EV cars,semi-trucks, and also for electric rail vehicles, aka: electric trains.

Referring to FIGS. 1A-1B, ship lap segment joints 100 are designed toenable rapid setting of adjacent roadway conduit sections 10. Curbs 101on each side provide a side barrier for vehicles to remain between andalso a support structure upon which steel rails can be optionallyinstalled for rail transportation. In this case the curb can be raisedupward (not shown) so that any rail vehicle is elevated above anyroadway vehicle so as to separate the two modes of vehicle at entrancesand exits to the conduit system so that each mode of vehicle can enteror exit the conduit system.

Holes 102, enable passing steel cables so that long sections of severalroadway segments can be optionally post tensioned together afterpositioning them. After post tensioning a section of roadway conduittogether, one can optionally and preferably force concrete into one ormore holes 104 in the base of the roadway conduit segment so as to flowconcrete grout or other suitable hardening material beneath the roadwaysegment to fill any gaps in the sub grade base material that may haveformed during positioning of the segments during construction.

In some embodiments, a layer of rubberized asphalt 103 will be installedon the road base segment to reduce tire noise and smooth the verticalaccelerations experienced by occupants of high speed vehicles. Whetherthe additional layer 103 is added over the precast concrete or othermaterial base layer, the top surface of the bottom interior of theconduit provides a road base upon which road vehicles can roll. Theinterior size of the conduit can be larger or smaller depending onwhether the conduit will be used by cars, pickup trucks and SUVs,semi-trucks with trailers, and/or self-powered, steel wheeled, traincars riding on rails (not shown), the rails preferentially being locatedon top of curbs 101, or alternately along the road base bottom (notshown).

Ideally the roadway conduit segment 10 in FIGS. 1A-1B will beconstructed using precast concrete methods similar to box culvertconstruction except that preferably the rebar within the segment will bebent in a continuous coil from long continuous coiled rebar so that thejacket within the concrete is formed with few joints and the speed ofbuilding and casting sections is increased. Thicknesses of top, base,and walls can be varied depending upon the loads they will carry forspecific applications. Optional lift bracket attachment 106 ispositioned so that the segments can be quickly lifted from trucks andpositioned along the roadway conduit. Alternately a cradle for the cranecan be used without fixedly attaching a segment to the crane lift cablecomponents during placement.

Sound deadening material can also optionally and preferably be coated onthe other interior surfaces 105 which can also be fitted withlongitudinal “V” notches as in FIG. 12A to provide multiple reflectionsof acoustic energy to increase sound absorption within the conduitsystem. Also seen are sidewalls 106, roof or ceiling 107. Walls and/orceiling can optionally be covered with a sound deadening material suchas shown in FIG. 12B.

Post tension holes 102 (four shown) on cable termination segments FIG.1B are shown with additional penetrations 109 (inside optional location)and 110 (exterior optional location). These will typically only be onthose segments located at the ends of the cable runs to enable posttensioning. Cable hole 102B (bottom left hole on FIG. 1B) connectsthrough the concrete to a typical cable termination position located at110. Cable hole 102A on the opposite end of the segment, (not shown butclose to cable termination 110) connects through the concrete to cabletermination 109 shown. In this way, cables running in oppositedirections overlap, essentially for the length of the segment. Howeverone could as easily install a steel cable termination near the center ofthe segment to which cables coming from opposite directions bothterminate in which case the cables technically overlap but practicallyterminate at the identical location. The point of specifying that thecables overlap is so that all of the concrete in all conduit sections,including the termination segments, are put into compression by thecable stress. It would be sub optimal, for example, to have the cableentering hole 102A terminate at location 110, and the opposite, a cableentering 102B and terminating at position 109, as that would place theconcrete in this termination conduit segment into tension, a conditionfor which concrete is not a suitable material to use.

FIG. 2 shows a group of four individual segments of a roadway conduit 20assembled together and also a vehicle, a car, within the conduit 20. Thecar is shown moving to the right and the air within the conduit will bemoving in the same sense, naturally, due to vehicular drag (pistoneffect) and optionally also due to air mover energy deposition into theair within the conduit roadway system. FIG. 2 shows the roadway conduit20 installed on the surface of the ground, where the ground could bedirt or it could be a previously existing surface roadway. It also showshow post tensioned cables overlap including a cable in hole 203 runningthrough adjacent segments from hole 201 to hole 202. The segments areshown aligned, but using this method the segments can additional beadjusted to different orientations allowing the interior roadway conduitbore to curve around a horizontal turn and/or to rotate about ahorizontal axis to allow the conduit to be directed upward or downwardto follow the contour of the sub grade. Like a “Chinese” segmented toysnake, this construction method enables the conduit segments to berapidly placed along any course, and then locked together into asegmented but otherwise single continuous structure capable of smallmovement without failure of structural integrity.

FIG. 3 shows the same system partially buried. In this preferable butmore expensive installation the structure gains stability bothmechanically and thermally due to being partially buried. Further, bysealing the segments against water intrusion, and depending on exactmaterials and sub grade densities and segment geometry, the shownconfiguration is approximately the depth at which a segmented tunnelwould float over marshy swamp land. This installation affords anadditional advantage that it does not require a foundation, as would aviaduct. It is somewhat like a submerged tunnel road where it is onlypartially submerged. This construction method enables the roadwayconduit to be installed across land that is incapable of supportingpiers or other typical foundations required for surface roadways and/orviaducts. Once sealed and post tensioned, the entire segmented systembecomes a semi rigid roadway conduit that provides energy conservationand also enables a roadway to be installed in heretofore impossiblelocations.

FIG. 4 shows the same system again, fully buried. While fully belowground, the top of the conduit segments is typically within three metersof the surface, and therefore the planetary atmosphere, so thatprovision of emergency exits is easy compared to a tunnel under a waterway or through a mountain, where outdoor air would be a long distanceaway requiring expensive pedestrian corridors. While not shown,emergency exits can easily be provided at close spacings down the lengthof the roadway conduit system at a very low cost due to the shortdistance to the outside atmosphere. If required along a route, a roadwayconduit can be coupled to or built as a tunnel to penetrate through amountain, river, sea, city, freeway interchange, or other obstacle.While the tunnel section would not be considered a roadway conduit onits own, if it is couple to a roadway conduit to get past some obstacle,it then becomes a part of the overall roadway conduit system and isconsidered part of the roadway conduit system.

FIG. 5 shows a pair of conduits as in FIG. 4, this time with a surfaceroadway installed on top of the just below grade roadway conduits. Inthis manner, a little like subways in a city, a high speed roadwayconduit could be installed below a low speed city street, or, below anexisting surface freeway so as to provide the new functionality whilemaintaining the surface roadway function. Again, the interior conduit isclose to the outside atmosphere to enable fast and easy exit creationalong the length of the conduit. Preferably the interior of the conduitis within 3 meters of the exterior atmospheric air and still morepreferably it would be essentially adjacent to the outside atmospherewith a surface roadway installed directly on top of the conduit segment.It should be understood, however, that the minimum depth reducesconstruction cost, while a more deeply buried roadway conduit wouldperform just as well while costing more. In some aspects, the threemeter metric distinguishes these roadway conduits from tunnels that arebuilt below a waterway or through a mountain, where the distance fromthe interior of the conduit to the outside atmosphere can be hundreds oreven a thousand or more meters. Another aspect of the shallow depth isthat it is not practical to bore a tunnel at such a shallow depth due tocave ins of overlying dirt. Therefore, the conduit segments willtypically be constructed using excavators, whereas tunnels are typicallybuilt using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) and/or via blasting methods.Tunnels are in general not close to a surface and therefore tunnels aretypically not constructed using excavators and instead are required touse more expensive digging equipment and methods.

In some example embodiments, the three meter depth and any other depthwhere the conduit system is built to substantially take advantage of thefeatures described here are also considered equivalent to this depthfigure as the interior tunnel performance is virtually the sameregardless of the depth the conduit is at.

FIG. 6 shows a vehicle going airborne and flying over a typical barrierinstalled between opposing traffic on surface freeways. The collisionenergy is dramatically larger if a head on collision is possible. Withinthe roadway conduit system, head on collisions are impossible. Further,there are no protrusions within the roadway conduit system for anyvehicle to collide with and suddenly come to a stop. The worst crashpossibility within the roadway conduit is for a vehicle to bounce off ofand scrape the interior walls until stopped, a very low collision energyscenario. A lower deceleration rate translates into less severe injuriesfor occupants involved in an accident within a roadway conduit ascompared to a similar velocity accident on a surface roadway.

FIG. 7 shows diagrammatically, various roadway conduit paths around theUS. The roadway conduits are intended for long distance transportationwith cross country being ideal. They are of course also useful for shortdistance travel, especially in locations with problematic trafficcongestion where the conduits provide an alternate transit method wherevehicle motions are computer controlled leading to increased vehiclethroughput. One conduit lane can flow 5 surface traffic lanes worth oftypical stop and go traffic. So the conduits are useful as long distanceroutes due to decreased transportation costs and also as short distanceroutes due to increased traffic volume flow capability.

Long distance travel with higher velocity and simultaneously lowerenergy consumption have not been possible in the past so that these verylong routes provide a dramatic time and energy savings while at the sametime providing improved safety.

In example embodiments, a post tensioned, segmented, conduit wayconstruction method is used to provide a conduit way that creates asurrounding rigid shell and an interior space within which a hyperlooptube can be installed. In this application, the segmented conduit wayconstruction method is used to provide a rigid support structure uponwhich the hyperloop tube can be built. By constructing the hyperlooptube in a tunnel, the tube can be built using lower cost methods andthermal expansion of the tube problems are dramatically reduced.Compared to underground tunnel construction methods and to above groundin tube construction methods, this combination of ground surfaceproximate conduit way with interior hyperloop tube enables a lower costoverall construction and as well, post construction adjustment of thetube position to offset minor earth settlement that typically occursover long periods of time. Within the conduit way, hyperloop tubesupports can be adjusted to re align the tube along any section whereearth settling has altered the tube course compared to the originalinstallation.

FIGS. 8A-8B show one version of an eight-way air mover. These figuresare an elevation view of a roadway conduit. It shows one embodimentwhere the air movers 801 located between a pair of air deflectors 803and diverter bulkheads 802. The air movers are bi directional. Eachdeflector 802 is able to modify the air source or sink between 2choices. A first choice is air within the tunnel and a second choice isatmospheric outside air. Two inlet choices combined with two outletchoices make 4 air flow options. Then, providing a bi directional airmover doubles the options from 4 to 8. With the system, air can be blowninto the conduit in the forward or backward direction. The air goinginto the air movers can come from atmospheric air and/or from conduitinterior air. As the deflector vanes 803 are adjusted between extremes,the air percentage is shifted from 100% one way to 100% the other wayand includes 50/50 and every percentage ratio in between as optionalcontrol settings. Air direction can be determined and controlled basedon a variety of needs such as vehicle energy conservation, runawayvehicle increased air drag via reversed airflow imposed on vehicles, andairflow directivity based on the location of smoke emission in case ofemergency operations such as a vehicle fire within the conduit system.

Car and truck vehicles are shown, optional rail vehicles and rails arenot shown. One method of constructing an 8 way air mover is to provideabove the conduit way, three air mover sections. In the middle are bidirectional air movers. On each side there is a movable vane thatdirects air flow to be communicated between the conduit interior and theoutside atmospheric air. FIG. 8A shows air being communicated in theforward sense, from atmospheric air to conduit system interior. Thiswill accelerate the air within the conduit and will also increase thepressure within the conduit. FIG. 8B shows air being brought into theair mover from behind and being pushed outward at higher velocity ahead.This will accelerate the air in the forward direction and will slightlyreduce the air pressure in the conduit behind the air mover inlet andslightly increase it ahead of the air mover exit. Operated as shown,both of these configurations reduce vehicular energy demand.

Not shown, if the direction of air motion from the air mover isreversed, then FIG. 8B could be operated with air motion along the pathshown but in the opposite direction. In this case, the air motion willwork against the vehicular motion and act to increase vehicular energydemand. In the case of a runaway truck emergency, this configurationcould be created in real time if for example, a truck sent a message tothe conduit control system declaring an emergency and requesting thereverse air flow assistance if, for instance, the truck were headingdown a steep incline and had lost regenerative braking and alsofrictional braking.

By blowing air backward up a downhill conduit, a truck could be slowedvia a completely different method than either frictional brakes orregenerative braking. This provides the function of a “Runaway TruckRamp” on conventional surface freeways.

At the same time, optionally, the conduit control system would sendmessages to all other vehicles instructing them to take specificactions, such as increasing safe separation distance from the runawaytruck, and also for instance, vehicles behind the truck could beinstructed to slow so as to further reduce the forward air flow to aidthe air movers in helping the runaway truck slow down. One choice forthe air flow pattern could be the same geometry as shown in FIG. 8Bexcept that the arrows on the air motion would be reversed to impose aheadwind impinging upon the truck. Vehicles ahead of the truck would beinstructed to accelerate away and ahead of the truck as they too wouldneed to increase power to just maintain velocity.

FIG. 9 shows another roadway conduit construction method where precastpre-stressed concrete flat slabs are assembled. This view shows one wayto build a bi-directional conduit system where one conduit carriestraffic in one direction and the adjacent conduit carries traffic in theopposite direction. The two conduits could alternately be used to carrytwo lanes of traffic in the same direction, and optionally in this casethe center divider wall could be eliminated by means of using thickerand stronger roof slabs to span the larger conduit width. Rather thanindividual segments, this construction uses precast slabs that arefixedly connected. FIG. 9 shows a roadway with horizontal slabs 901 uponwhich are placed 3 walls 902 and roof slabs 903. FIG. 9 shows aconstruction that forms a pair of conduits for 2 adjacent roadways.These could be in the same, or in opposite, directions.

FIG. 10 shows the layout of a typical roadway conduit system including aproperty adjacent to an existing surface freeway 1008 where a solar1009, wind or other renewable energy farm can be constructed. At anentrance into the roadway conduit system along an ingress roadway 1004there exist one or more ICE vehicle barriers 1001 and/or 1002. Thesebarriers can be in the form of signs including signage indicating finesfor failing to observe the barriers or alternately in the form of anactual barricade 1002.

The ingress roadway 1004 to 1005 in this case is shown crossing theexisting surface freeway by dropping below grade, passing beneath, andthen rising back up to the level of the roadway conduit system andmerging with any traffic 1006 within the roadway conduit system 1007.Alternately the ingress could be effected via an overpass or in the casewhere there does not exist a surface freeway, directly at grade. It isalso possible to create the ingress roadway as a left exit from theexisting surface freeway 1008 and direct entrance into the roadwayconduit system. It is further possible to effect ingress and egressroadways to a property adjacent to the conduit way where the conduit wayitself runs along the surface of a privately owned property so that theingress and egress roadways do not need to drop below grade as is shown.These descriptions use U.S. roadway configurations where driving is tothe right hand side of the road, but this convention is not intended torestrict the scope of the present disclosure where applied to drivingconventions in other parts of the world.

Note that the ingress roadway 1004 drops below grade as it passes belowground at 1011 and continues beneath the existing surface freeway 1008on its way to the merging section of the ingress roadway 1005 whichrises back to the level of the local roadway conduit system 1007 atabout location 1012.

A roadway conduit egress roadway (not shown) is essentially the samegeometry as an ingress roadway in reverse, where traffic diverges fromthe roadway conduit onto an egress roadway and exits the roadway conduitsystem to arrive at a property adjacent to the surface freeway. Theegress roadway could alternately enable vehicles to exit the roadwayconduit and simply merge onto the existing surface freeway, or, it couldenable vehicles to exit to an adjacent property via an overpass ratherthan as an underpass as shown. The Ingress roadway can also beconstructed in different ways to enable access from different initialpositions including and not limited to using an overpass from anadjacent private or public property, or access from a lane of thesurface freeway, or other starting locations.

Of importance is that an ICE vehicle barrier does not need to be aphysical barrier per se. It can be a sign or other signal that indicatessimply that ICE vehicles are not allowed within the roadway conduitsystem. Whether a fine need be established or a physical barrier need beinstalled depends on the local public and how well they respect signageindicating that ICE vehicles are not allowed in the conduit system dueto exhaust pollution. One passive ICE barrier is a sign stating “NoInternal Combustion Engine Vehicles Allowed.” A second barrier is thegraphical version of same showing the world “ICE” with a diagonal linethrough it as the International symbol for what is not allowed, in thiscase, “Internal Combustion Engine” vehicles. The third barrier shown isa gate across the roadway.

Typically, the conduit control system will engage a vehicle desiring toenter the conduit system with a communication protocol that includes thecreation of a vehicle ID for use within the conduit system that can beused later on in the case of additional communications while translatingalong the conduit system (for example, in case of an emergency the exactvehicle can be directed to take specific action so that all vehicleswithin the conduit system act in a coordinated fashion). The conduitcontrol system will also identify what type of vehicle is at the gateand will only open the gate if the vehicle is a zero emissions vehiclesuch as an EV, compressed air vehicle, super capacitor vehicle and soon.

The ingress roadway beginning on property adjacent to but separate fromthe existing surface freeway so as to enable installation of a renewableenergy farm on the property. Typically, an egress roadway will alsoconnect to the property adjacent to the conduit way (not shown). Powercables to power equipment within the roadway conduit system can bebrought into the roadway conduit system along with the ingress roadwayconduit. Also shown is one rest building and as well, an array of solarmodules.

The portion of the ingress roadway noted by 1003 is below grade butcould be an overpass and be above the grade of the existing surfacefreeway.

FIG. 11 details the electrical system of the present disclosureincluding an air mover, optionally an 8 way air mover 1102 coupled tothe roadway conduit system 1106 that is electrically connected to arenewable energy farm such as a solar farm 1101 and able to be operatedas an islanded electrical circuit with only the renewable energy farmand the roadway conduit and it's electrical systems connected.Optionally a renewable energy storage system can be added to theislanded system such as for example, a group of battery power backup1103. Optionally the entire system can be connected to a utility 1105via a relay 1104. The roadway conduit system is shown with an air moveras a power load. While other sensors, lights, and systems will alsorequire power, the air movers will in general be the largest powerconsuming devices within the conduit system. The power delivered to theair movers and conduit system will typically come from, an energystorage device such as a battery power storage 1103. The original energyfor the conduit system will be generated by one or more of a solar farm1101, wind farm, hydro-electric, or other on site power generator. Thesystem will therefore be capable of operating 24/7 on its own, as isshown by the open relay 1104 that can optionally connect the system to alocal utility 1105.

By connecting to a utility, the system is additionally able to pushpower out onto the utility and/or absorb power from the utility. Thisenables the renewable energy farm to be sized taking into account, localutility power availability and whether selling power or using thebatteries to absorb excess utility power might provide additionalrevenue. The key being that the roadway conduit system with energysource and battery energy storage is capable of operating at night andwhen the wind isn't blowing, on its own. The connection to the utilityis therefore an optional addition that enables use of somewhat smallersized energy farm and/or battery bank. Further, the conduit system couldbe operated without onsite energy generation by simply using utilityenergy. Doing so, however, would be more expensive and so is lessdesirable.

FIGS. 12 and 12A-12B detail one optional method for damping acousticenergy within the roadway conduit system comprising at least onelongitudinal groove to multiply reflect acoustic energy therebyincreasing the degree to which that energy is damped. Grooves 1201 shownon one conduit segment design and in detail 12A, provide acousticreflective surfaces to bounce acoustic energy. Detail 12B shows groovesfilled with an additional and optional damping material 1203 to furtherreduce the acoustic amplitude within the conduit system. Preferably,acoustic material 1203 will more closely match the acoustic impedance ofair than concrete 1202, so that acoustic energy will penetrate into thedamping material and become attenuated prior to bouncing off of theconcrete 1202 and heading back out and through the same material beforeexiting into the air of the tunnel. Preferably the material acousticimpedance will be between that of air and that of concrete so as toincrease acoustic damping within the acoustic damping material.Optionally, the angles of the grooves can be tailored to be different atdifferent places around the segment so that energy is preferentiallyreflected toward another part of the conduit segment walls or roof,rather than being reflected back toward the vehicle and occupants. Inthis way, acoustic energy is reflected more than once before returningto where another vehicle might detect it.

By lining the walls and/or ceiling with grooves, any sound pressurewaves that strike those surfaces will be reflected more times thanwithout. FIG. 12A shows grooves alone. FIG. 12B shows grooves with anacoustic absorbing filler material. Typically, the filler material willbe of low acoustic impedance and high acoustic damping, while theconcrete is of high acoustic impedance. In this way, acoustic energymust penetrate into the acoustic damping material, then reflect once ortwice from the concrete surfaces, and then again pass outward throughthe acoustic damping material. This increases acoustic damping of noiseand reduces the noise sound pressure within the conduit way system asperceived by occupants of vehicles within the conduit system.

FIG. 13 details the layout of a property adjacent to a roadway conduitsystem including a conduit roadway 1302, conduit egress 1309 and ingress1308 roadways, a Charging Station Kiosk area 1301 including a vehicleoccupant egress area 1303 and ingress area 1306, the Kiosk includingoptionally restaurants 1311 and entertainment 1312. A vehicle will exita roadway conduit when it needs to be charged or when the occupants of avehicle need a break. The occupants will arrive in the vehicle at theegress location 1303 and exit the vehicle. The vehicle will thenautonomously drive to a vehicle charging location 1304 where it will becharged automatically or with charger worker assistance, assuming itneeds to charge. After receiving the requested charge state, the vehiclewill be disconnected from the charger (if it was connected), notify theowner that it is ready, and then if instructed, drive to the occupantingress location 1306 where occupants can board the vehicle. Otherwisethe vehicle will autonomously drive to a parking area 1305 and wait tobe summoned by the occupants. A vehicle that doesn't need to charge willgo directly to the parking area 1305. Following being summoned to theboarding area 1306, the vehicle will pass an optional ICE barrier 1307and then enter the roadway conduit system, following instructions fromthe roadway conduit control system, via the roadway conduit systemingress roadway 1308 after which it will merge with existing trafficwithin the roadway conduit system 1302.

In some aspects, roadway conduit sections (e.g., conduits 20) may beformed from pre-cast concrete structures. In some aspects, such pre-caststructures may be pre-stressed using pre-cast techniques. Roadwayconduit sections, for example, may be built in 600 foot long runs byplacing a number of steel twisted wire tendons, pre-tensioning(stretching) the tendons, pouring concrete into a mold with separators(e.g., to produce 40 foot long roadway slabs are formed within a 600foot long mold where the tendons run the entire 600 feet), allowing theconcrete to set (e.g., overnight), and then cutting the individual slabsby means of block outs that create short sections every 40 feet wherethe concrete does not flow and the tendons can be accessed.

In such a process, 40 foot long slabs are created where, after cuttingthe steel tendons, it tries to relax, or shrink in length. But theconcrete is now bonded around and encapsulating the tendons so that theycannot reduce in length. The attempted strain reduction in the steelimposes compression stress on the concrete. Concrete is strong incompression and weak in tension. The compression stress maintainsconcrete in a desired structural condition, i.e., compression. Byimposing a compression that is large enough, even a beam that isstressed by a load that would normally put the concrete into tensionalong the bottom fibers of the beam can remain in compression by meansof imposing initially a compression stress that is larger than theexpected working tensile stress.

In this manner, under expected operational conditions, concretecomponents can be fabricated that never (or very rarely) go intotension. Such concrete components are then able to last an unusuallylong period of time without suffering cracking and degradation.

In some aspects, constructing a roadway conduit segment (of a conduit20) may include building conduit segments of, e.g., 8 feet in length. Insome aspects, an example geometry of a precast roadway conduit segmentis a hollow rectangular solid made of concrete with steel reinforcementwithin. A pre-stressed design may be used for the top and bottom of thesegment, as well as, in some aspects, sidewall portions of the segment.

To provide pre-stressed steel within the conduit top and bottom portionsof the segments, the segments can be cast with the four walls: Top,bottom, and two sidewalls, may be oriented such that the “length” (e.g.,a direction parallel to traveling vehicles) is arranged to be along avertical axis during casting.

In some aspects, a roadway conduit comprises segments that are 12 feetwide by 14 feet tall so that cars, trucks, trailers, railcars, and othervehicles, may traverse within the conduit. Each segment might be 8 feetlong and coupled to form a long conduit that might be hundreds of mileslong. For casting, the individual segments could be placed such that the8 foot length is vertical, and the 12 and 14 foot sides and top andbottom are measured along horizontal directions.

In some aspects, the top and bottom portions of the segments are castwith pre-stressed techniques, as they will support the overburdenloading from above, and vehicular traffic on the bottom. In someaspects, the sidewalls (14 feet tall in this example), will supportvertical loading and typically be in compression so that rebar (ratherthan pre-stressed tendons) can be used.

By arranging a line of segments 600 feet long, where the bottoms andtops of the segments are parallel to the 600 foot long casting line,pre-stressed cables (e.g., steel tendons) may be used to form thepre-cast segments. To realize this geometry, the cables penetrate intoand through the casting molds for each individual segment. Rather thanrunning along a horizontal casting bed, the tendons may be grouped intoa vertical arrangement down each side of the molds and extend througheach of the molds to provide pre-stressed tendons along the top andbottom of the eventual roadway conduit segment.

To realize this, first, the outer shell of individual conduit segmentsmay be installed on casting bases. Next, tendons are run down the lengthof a mold, e.g., a 600 feet length. There may be, e.g., 20 tendons inthe top portion of a segment and another 20 tendons in the bottomportion of the segment. These two groups of tendons are each arrangedsuch that the loading on the eventual structure is resisted so that theconcrete does not experience tension. Of the 20 tendons, there may bemore along a top or bottom region of an individual side of the segment.For example, there may be more tendons, e.g., 16 out of 20, runningalong the “bottom” of the top portion of a roadway conduit segment whenplaced for use so that those tendons are positioned along a locationthat experiences a maximum tensile stress (e.g., due to overburdenloading of the top portion of the conduit segment).

The bottom of a roadway conduit segment may have more complicatedloading with support from below (e.g., from a terranean surface or floorof a tunnel), thereby placing the top of the bottom portion of theroadway conduit segment into tension, while vehicular loading may placethe bottom of the bottom portion of the roadway conduit segment intotension. In some aspects, 10 tendons may be placed to the top and tentendons may be placed to the bottom of the bottom portion of the roadwayconduit segment. In some aspects, loading can be pre-determined and thetendon number, size, and placement is a design criteria and a variablein the design of any roadway conduit segment.

In further aspects, rebar reinforcement can be installed in one or moresidewalls of a roadway conduit segment before or after the threading ofthe tendons through casting mold outer walls. These may be orthogonal tothe 600 foot long casting mold and may also be in a vertical orientationso that concrete can be cast down into the segment after all of thesteel is placed.

In implementations of the pre-casting of the roadway conduit segmentthat includes rebar, the rebar may be installed first and then thetendons can be threaded, which will be pre-stressed through the moldouter walls (top, bottom, sides) and also through the rebar cages forthe two sidewalls. Doing this, preferably, before inserting the innermold walls leaves easy access to placing all of the steel components.Alternatively, pre-stressed tendons may be used for the orthogonaldirection reinforcement as well; then the longitudinal and orthogonaltendons can be placed simultaneously, being passed through holes in themold walls.

As described, it can in some instances be an advantage to usepre-stressed methods for the sidewall portions of the roadway conduitsegments. These may be oriented orthogonal to the 600 foot casting line.This can be an advantage to resist side loading of the walls fromexpected subterranean formation conditions, and it can alternately be anadvantage because pre-stressed methods can be faster to fabricate than arebar cage.

In some aspects, a bulkhead may be installed to hold orthogonal steeltendons that pass through the roadway conduit segment molds. This time,each tendon may only run through a single mold, as the direction isorthogonal to the 600 foot production line. Each set of tendonstherefore may require a unique pair of opposing bulkheads. Each tendonmay again be tensioned. In the example of a 600 foot line of 40 roadwayconduit segments, with 20 tendons through the top portions and another20 tendons trough the bottom portions of the conduit segment, there are,therefore, 40 tendons that may be resisted with only two bulkheads.

To the extent that pre-stressed tendons are installed in place of rebarfor the segment sidewalls, then each of the 40 conduit segments mayrequire a total of two pairs or four bulkheads to support the tendons.For a 600 foot long production line with 40 roadway conduit segments perproduction line, there may be 40 segments times 4 bulkheads per segmentfor a total of 160 bulkheads.

In some aspects, because many tendon restraining devices allow anundesirable excess of relaxation, active loading control of theindividual tendons may be used. For example, one hydraulic ram tensionerper tendon may be used. With 20 tendons per sidewall, and 40 segmentseach with two walls, 1,600 hydraulic rams may be used to tension the runas each hydraulic ram would need to remain in place and pressurizeduntil the concrete has set. Then, the hydraulics could be released.

Optionally, each tendon could be fitted with a tensioning bolt that istorqued to a pre-determined level so that the tendon has the desired pretension prior to casting. An advantage of using pre-stressed tendons inthe roadway conduit segment walls is that threading tendons through themolds is faster than building the rebar cages. However, as the walls areprimarily in compression, the cost for the labor to build the cagesshould be balanced with the cost to build and install the orthogonalbulkheads and associated equipment.

After all of the steel in placed into the molds, the inner mold wallscan be installed. These may clamp to the mold base and may not touch thesteel reinforcement members. Though there may be, especially in the caseof rebar cages for the sidewalls, plastic separators to keep the rebarcentered within the casting forms. Pre-stressed tendons, when used forthe sidewalls, will be under tension and may not need separators tomaintain their positions within the casting molds.

Following placement of the inner walls, pre-stressed tendons may betensioned to the appropriate stress. After tensioning pre-stressedcables, concrete is poured into the molds and allowed to cure until itis strong enough to withstand the compression stress that will beapplied when the pre-stress on the tendons is released. Whenappropriate, all of the stress on tendons is released such that stressesapplied to the roadway conduit segments are minimized. The outer andinner molds are now removed and the individual segments can be liftedand transported for final curing.

After curing, the roadway conduit segments may be transported to thelocation of the roadway conduit system to be installed. After settingthe individual segments, optionally, post tensioning of tendonsinstalled through cast-in-place tubes can be performed. Alternately,dowel pins can locate adjacent segments into one another. Either way,once the segments are coupled and placed, the series of segments becomesa roadway conduit system.

In some implementations, the segments may be post tensioned into oneanother. This may enable the segment to resist ground motions that takeplace after placement. Settling will not cause the individual segmentsto move as would be the case if they were independent. The overallstructure, when post tensioned, has a length that is distributivelysupported by a terranean surface or tunnel floor. Gaps in that supportmay not cause an individual segment to subside or rise and instead, mayapply a loading to the overall length of roadway conduit.

In some aspects, the roadway conduit can be made water tight and willthus act like a concrete boat and float on a swampy terrain. The densityand displacement being able to be designed so that the roadway conduitfloats at any desired submersion ratio. For soil applications, thisdesign avoids the problem associated with a typical concrete freewaywhere individual slabs tilt as one end subsides and the other lefts dueto repeated pounding from traffic above.

In some aspects, the use of below ground tunnels can cost $100 M to $1 Bper mile and makes most traffic corridors too expensive to construct.The use of typical precast segments, such as are used for box culvertconstruction, could conceivably be used. But again, the cost may beprohibitive. A typical box culvert section costs $10,000 whereas theremay be just $1,000 worth of concrete and materials in the section. Thismeans fabrication charges are of order $9,000, or the majority of thecost of the culvert section.

In some aspects, roadway conduit systems according to the presentdisclosure may be fabricated more quickly with conduit segments thatemploy precast methods where an entire line of molds is cast together.For example, an approximately 600 foot long production line of 40 moldscould be built. By placing 40 or some other number of molds in a line,it becomes possible to utilize pre-stressed tendons within one or bothsides of the segments that are parallel to the length of the 40 moldline.

Within the structure of a conduit segment, whether buried or not, thewalls of the segment are generally in compression whereas both the topand bottom sides place the concrete into tension. Concrete may not beadequately strong in tension. For the top slab, the bottom of the topsurface may be in tension due to the weight of the top slab and theweight of any overburden or traffic that is added above. For the bottomslab, the side walls push down onto the bottom slab and the entirebottom slab then provides support. In a sense, a terranean surfaceprovides a normal force that supports the bottom slab. This places thetop of the bottom slab into tension.

Therefore, in some aspects, pre-stressed tendons may be cast into theconduit segments top and bottom slabs. These two slabs are opposite oneanother allowing a long line of molds to have those two faces parallelto the line of molds. That enables use of pre-stressing tendons if themolds are appropriately fabricated. For example, by inserting holesthrough the outer mold walls for tendons to pass through, it is possibleto pull tendons down the entire length of the 600 foot mold line.Tendons pass through each of the 40 molds outer mold walls and run suchthat they become cast into the top and bottom slabs of the conduitsegments in the mold line. At the appropriate location within the topand bottom slabs, the pre-stressing of the tendons applies a compressionload to the concrete after the concrete has been poured and cured to asufficient strength to withstand the compression stress, typicallyovernight.

The inner mold can then be inserted inside of the outer mold so as toform the conduit segment volume to be cast. Rebar can be used toreinforce the side walls as they will be in compression for the mostpart (side loading of earth can create some bending and thus tension,but this is small compared to the tensile loading on the top and bottomslabs).

The tendons can in this way, reach from a bulkhead at one end of acasting line, then pass through each of, e.g., 40 molds, and extend toanother bulkhead at the other end of the casting line. With the outermold in place and connected to a casting base, the tendons pulledthrough the line of molds from one bulkhead to another, and with theinner molds inserted and connected to the base and as well, rebar addedfor the reinforcement of the side walls, it then becomes safe to tensionthe pre-stressing tendons.

By tensioning 600 feet of tendon, the steel tendons can be stretchedusing typical pre-stressing methods. If a tendon breaks, it will beconstrained by all of the holes through individual molds, reducing thedanger of tendons explosively flying across the mold line. It can be anadvantage to insert bushings into the holes the tendons pass through tofacilitate their sliding during the tensioning process. The primary waytendons will break is if they bind on a sharp edge of a hole in an outermold wall, or if the tendon becomes nicked by a sharp edge of a hole. Itis therefore preferred to use soft bushings such as plastic or bronze tomitigate this potential problem.

After tensioning of the tendons, the concrete can be cast into the moldand the top surface finished to the desired geometry. The next day,typically, the concrete has set to a strength sufficient to cut thetendons. The molds can then be torn down and the cast segments removedto a location where curing can take place. In order to remove the outermolds after casting, the tendons can be cut close to the molds and thenthe outer molds can be provided with a split to allow the outer molds tobe moved horizontally, beyond and off of the cut tendons, and thenlifted away to be used to cast a next conduit segment. To facilityremoval, it is preferable to add pistons to the side walls to break themold away from the concrete after casting. This may be true for theouter molds and also for the inner molds.

In some aspects, critical sides of a rectangular conduit segment todispose with pre-stressed tendons may be the top and bottom of thesegment as placed for use. However, depending on soil type, soilconditions, and upon conduit loading from within and without, it can bethe case that it is preferable to install pre-stressed tendons in thevertical side walls (as placed for use). It is also possible to usepre-stressed reinforcement within all four sides of a typicalrectangular conduit segment, albeit more complicated to realize asstretching the short lengths orthogonal to the primary long run mayrequire special treatment of the tendon stressing. It is, however,possible to build segments with all four sides pre stressed, and in somesituations, may be preferable.

In some aspects, inner molds may be fabricated in several pieces. Byunbolting the several pieces and removing them one by one, it ispossible to get the inner mold out of the inner space. Outer molds maybe easier to remove because they can just be expanded outward, but innermolds cannot expand into themselves. In some aspects, an inner mold maybe collapsed into a “star” geometry with the mid regions of each moldface collapsing in toward the center of the mold segment, slightly. Itis sufficient to break the mold contact with the concrete via use ofpistons. This can move the middle of the inner mold sides, toward thecenter of the mold by one or a few inches. This has the effect of alsomoving the corners of that inner mold slightly inward toward the centeras well. Doing this frees the entire inner mold from the just-castconcrete. With the mold separated from the concrete, it can then belifted up and out of the newly cast conduit segment.

For both the outer mold, which expands to get off of the cut tendons,and the inner mold that collapses inward, the entire structures can belifted and moved laterally to a second mold base, and re assembled. Byproviding a casting facility with a pair of mold bases and a singleouter mold and a single inner mold for each casting position, the outerand inner molds can be shuttled back and forth between two mold basesand an entire line of 40 conduit segments can be cast each day. As eachmile of roadway conduit may use about 660 segments of 8 feet each, asingle line of this design would be capable of producing about 2 milesworth of conduit segments per month per fabrication line. For a longerproject, multiple casting lines can be built.

A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it willbe understood that various modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosure. For example, exampleoperations, methods, or processes described herein may include moresteps or fewer steps than those described. Further, the steps in suchexample operations, methods, or processes may be performed in differentsuccessions than that described or illustrated in the figures.Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the followingclaims.

1. (canceled)
 2. A vehicle roadway conduit system, comprising: at leastone roadway conduit section that comprises: a floor portion thatcomprises a roadway surface configured to receive one or more travelingvehicles, a ceiling portion, and at least one sidewall portion coupledto the floor portion and the ceiling portion such that the floor,ceiling, and at least one sidewall portions define a roadway conduitvolume through which the one or more traveling vehicles traverse the atleast one roadway conduit section, the at least one roadway conduitsection comprising at least two fixedly connected preformed segments; atleast one roadway conduit ingress coupled to a first location of the atleast one roadway conduit section, the at least one roadway conduitingress comprising at least one vehicle barrier; a conduit controlsystem communicably coupled to the at least one vehicle barrier andconfigured to perform operations comprising: identifying a type of eachof the one or more traveling vehicles; controlling the at least onevehicle barrier to allow passage of a first vehicle of the one or moretraveling vehicles through the vehicle barrier and into the at least oneroadway conduit section based on a determination that the type of thefirst vehicle is a first type of vehicle allowed to enter the at leastone roadway conduit system, and; controlling the at least one vehiclebarrier to prohibit passage of a second vehicle of the one or moretraveling vehicles from entering the at least one roadway conduit basedon a determination that the type of the second vehicle is a second typeof vehicle prohibited from entering the at least one roadway conduitsystem; and at least one roadway conduit egress coupled to a secondlocation of the at least one roadway conduit section.
 3. The roadwayconduit system of claim 2, wherein the first type of vehicle comprises azero emissions vehicle and the second type of vehicle comprises aninternal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.
 4. The roadway conduit systemof claim 2, wherein the first type of vehicle comprises a zeroemissions, autonomously-driven vehicle and the second type of vehiclecomprises at least one of an internal combustion engine (ICE) ornon-autonomously-driven vehicle.
 5. The roadway conduit system of claim2, wherein the first type of vehicle comprises an autonomously-drivenvehicle and the second type of vehicle comprises anon-autonomously-driven vehicle.
 6. The roadway conduit system of claim2, wherein the conduit control system is configured to performoperations further comprising: providing an instruction to the firstvehicle to travel through the at least one roadway conduit system at aspecified velocity.
 7. The roadway conduit system of claim 2, whereinthe conduit control system is configured to perform operations furthercomprising communicating one or more instructions to the first vehiclethrough a wireless communication between the conduit control system andthe first vehicle.
 8. The roadway conduit system of claim 7, wherein thewireless communication comprises a Wi-Fi communication.
 9. The roadwayconduit system of claim 2, wherein the conduit control system isconfigured to perform operations further comprising: communicativelyengaging each of the one or more traveling vehicles at or near the atleast one vehicle barrier; and determining, based at least in part onthe communicative engagement, the type of each of the one or moretraveling vehicles.
 10. The roadway conduit system of claim 2, whereinthe conduit control system is configured to perform operations furthercomprising: determining an entry location and an exit location of thefirst vehicle: determining a flow of traffic within the at least oneroadway conduit between the entry location and the exit location;determining that the flow of traffic is maintainable within the at leastone roadway conduit with the first vehicle; determining an entry time ofthe first vehicle to maintain the flow of traffic; assigning thedetermined entry time for the first vehicle; communicating thedetermined entry time to the first vehicle; and operating the at leastone vehicle barrier to allow passage of the first vehicle past the atleast one vehicle barrier at the assigned entry time.
 11. The roadwayconduit system of claim 2, wherein the conduit control system isconfigured to perform operations further comprising: providing aninstruction to the first vehicle to travel through the at least oneroadway conduit system within a platoon of other vehicles of the firsttype.
 12. The roadway conduit system of claim 11, wherein the conduitcontrol system is configured to perform operations further comprising:providing an instruction to the first vehicle to travel through the atleast one roadway conduit system at a lead position of the platoon ofother vehicles of the first type when the platoon catches up with thefirst vehicle.
 13. The roadway conduit system of claim 12, wherein theinstruction to the first vehicle comprises: a first portion of theinstruction to travel at a velocity slower than a cruising velocity ofthe platoon of other vehicles of the first type until the platoon isbehind and adjacent to the first vehicle; and a second portion of theinstruction to travel at the cruising velocity of the platoon of othervehicles of the first type.
 14. The roadway conduit system of claim 2,wherein the roadway conduit section is configured to operate such that adistance between the roadway conduit interior volume and atmosphericoutside air is less than nine meters for a distance of at least onemile.
 15. The roadway conduit system of claim 2, further comprising atleast one air mover configured to circulate an airflow in the roadwayconduit volume in a direction of at least one of the traveling vehicles.16. The roadway conduit system of claim 15, wherein the at least one airmover is controllable to adjust the velocity of the circulated airflowbased on at least one of a velocity of the one or more travelingvehicles or a location of the one or more traveling vehicles, and the atleast one air mover is controllable to adjust the pressure of thecirculated airflow within the roadway conduit volume.
 17. The roadwayconduit system of claim 16, wherein the at least one air mover iscontrollable to maintain a near zero vehicular headwind for the one ormore traveling vehicles within the roadway conduit.
 18. The roadwayconduit system of claim 2, wherein the at least two fixedly connectedpreformed segments comprise at least two precast concrete segments thatare fixedly connected using post tensioning so as to fixedly compressadjacent segments into one another.
 19. The roadway conduit system ofclaim 18, wherein at least one of the precast concrete segmentscomprises at least one surface that is reinforced using pre-stressedtendons cast into the segment.
 20. The roadway conduit system of claim18, further comprising at least one compressible liquid barrierpositioned between the two adjacent segments.
 21. The roadway conduitsystem of claim 18, wherein post tensioning comprises a plurality ofpost-tensioned tendons, and at least two of the post-tensioned tendonsoverlap within a particular one of the adjacent segments to form aunitary structure of the at least two precast and post tensionedconcrete segments.
 22. The roadway conduit system of claim 2, wherein atleast a portion of the at least one roadway conduit section comprises asound dampening material.
 23. The roadway conduit system of claim 22,wherein the sound dampening material is comprised of a rubberizedasphalt material disposed upon the roadway surface.
 24. The roadwayconduit system of claim 2, wherein the operation of identifying a typeof each of the one or more traveling vehicles comprises: providing awireless communication from the conduit control system to each of theone or more traveling vehicles; and receiving, at the conduit controlsystem and from each of the one or more traveling vehicles, a wirelesscommunication response that comprises the type of each of the one ormore traveling vehicles.
 25. A method for managing traveling vehicles,comprising: receiving one or more traveling vehicles at a roadwayconduit ingress coupled to a first location of at least one roadwayconduit section; regulating receipt of the one or more travelingvehicles into the at least one roadway conduit ingress with at least onevehicle barrier, the regulating comprising: identifying a type of eachof the one or more traveling vehicles, operating the at least onevehicle barrier to allow passage of a first vehicle of the one or moretraveling vehicles through the vehicle barrier and into the at least oneroadway conduit section based on a determination that the type of thefirst vehicle is a first type of vehicle allowed to enter the at leastone roadway conduit system, and operating the at least one vehiclebarrier to prohibit passage of a second vehicle of the one or moretraveling vehicles from entering the at least one roadway conduit basedon a determination that the type of the second vehicle is a second typeof vehicle prohibited from entering the at least one roadway conduitsystem; receiving the first vehicle of the one or more travelingvehicles from the at least one roadway conduit ingress into a roadwayconduit volume of the roadway conduit section, the roadway conduitsection comprising: a floor portion that comprises a roadway surfaceconfigured to support the one or more traveling vehicles, a ceilingportion, and at least one sidewall portion coupled to the floor portionand the ceiling portion such that the floor, ceiling, and at least onesidewall portions define the roadway conduit volume through which thetraveling vehicles traverse the at least one roadway conduit section,the at least one roadway conduit section comprising at least two fixedlyconnected preformed segments.
 26. The method of claim 25, wherein thefirst type of vehicle comprises a zero emissions vehicle and the secondtype of vehicle comprises an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.27. The method of claim 25, wherein the first type of vehicle comprisesa zero emissions, autonomously-driven vehicle and the second type ofvehicle comprises at least one of an internal combustion engine (ICE) ornon-autonomously-driven vehicle.
 28. The method of claim 25, wherein thefirst type of vehicle comprises an autonomously-driven vehicle and thesecond type of vehicle comprises a non-autonomously-driven vehicle. 29.The method of claim 25, further comprising providing an instruction tothe first vehicle to travel through the at least one roadway conduitsystem at a specified velocity.
 30. The method of claim 25, furthercomprising communicating one or more instructions to the first vehiclethrough a wireless communication between the conduit control system andthe first vehicle.
 31. The method of claim 30, wherein identifying atype of each of the one or more traveling vehicles comprises: providinga wireless communication query from the conduit control system to eachof the one or more traveling vehicles; and receiving, at the conduitcontrol system and from each of the one or more traveling vehicles, awireless communication response that comprises the type of each of theone or more traveling vehicles.
 32. The method of claim 30, wherein thewireless communication comprises a Wi-Fi communication.
 33. The methodof claim 25, further comprising: communicatively engaging each of theone or more traveling vehicles at or near the at least one vehiclebarrier; and determining, based on the communicative engagement, thetype of each of the one or more traveling vehicles.
 34. The method ofclaim 25, further comprising: determining an entry location and an exitlocation of the first vehicle: determining a flow of traffic within theat least one roadway conduit; determining that the flow of traffic ismaintainable within the at least one roadway conduit with the firstvehicle.
 35. The method of claim 34, further comprising assigning anentry time into the at least one roadway conduit to the first vehicle.36. The method of claim 25, further comprising providing an instructionto the first vehicle to travel through the at least one roadway conduitsystem within a platoon of other vehicles of the first type.
 37. Themethod of claim 36, further comprising providing an instruction to thefirst vehicle to travel through the at least one roadway conduit systemat a lead position of the platoon of other vehicles of the first type.38. The method of claim 36, wherein the instruction to the first vehiclecomprises: a first portion of the instruction to travel at a velocityslower than a cruising velocity of the platoon of other vehicles of thefirst type until the platoon is behind and adjacent to the firstvehicle; and a second portion of the instruction to travel at thecruising velocity of the platoon of other vehicles of the first type.39. The method of claim 25, wherein the roadway conduit section isconfigured to operate such that a distance between the roadway conduitinterior volume and atmospheric outside air is less than nine meters fora distance of at least one mile.
 40. The method of claim 25, furthercomprising circulating an airflow in the roadway conduit volume in adirection of at least one of the traveling vehicles.
 41. The method ofclaim 40, further comprising: controlling a velocity of the circulatedairflow based on at least one of a velocity of the one or more travelingvehicles or a location of the one or more traveling vehicles; andcontrolling a pressure of the circulated airflow within the roadwayconduit volume.
 42. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least twofixedly connected preformed segments comprise at least two precastconcrete segments that are fixedly connected using post tensioning so asto fixedly compress adjacent segments into one another.
 43. The methodof claim 42, wherein at least one of the precast concrete segmentscomprises at least one surface that is reinforced using pre-stressedtendons cast into the segment.
 44. The method of claim 42, wherein theadjacent segments comprise at least one compressible liquid barrierpositioned between the two adjacent segments.
 45. The method of claim42, wherein the post tensioning comprises a plurality of post-tensionedtendons, and at least two of the post-tensioned tendons overlap within aparticular one of the adjacent segments to form a unitary structure ofthe at least two precast and post tensioned concrete segments.
 46. Themethod of claim 25, further comprising reducing a noise level within theat least one roadway conduit section with a sound dampening materialpositioned on at least one of the floor portion, the ceiling portion, orthe at least one sidewall portion.
 47. The method of claim 46, whereinthe sound dampening material is comprised of a rubberized asphaltmaterial disposed upon the roadway surface.